This weekend we want to go to . . .
Mt Smart Stadium
Fear not! If there’s a blank space in your diary for tomorrow evening and you’ve decided it would be gorgeous to see songstress Taylor Swift, your wildest dreams can come true because tickets are still available. Grab a friend — two are always better than one — and head along for one of the biggest concert events of the year where you can shake off the working week in style. Taylor Swift, Mt Smart Stadium, Friday
Raynham Park
Charli XCX is in town to open for megastar Taylor Swift — and in true Charli style, she’s throwing her own loose afterparty on K Rd afterwards, answering countless calls for a sideshow. In collaboration with local MC Brown Boy Magik, Charli XCX is bringing singer Banoffee along to present 1999, a gig honouring her latest viral single with Troye Sivan. It’s been years since Charli has thrown a solo gig in New Zealand, so you can be promised a party with furious energy and tons of bangers. A tangata whenua guest list is available — contact is on the party’s Eventbrite listing. Charli XCX, Raynham Park, Friday at 9.30pm
Powerstation
King Princess, a rising singer who writes unapologetically queer bangers, is in town for her first-ever show here. A talented singersongwriter-producer from New York (and girlfriend of actress Amandla Stenberg), King Princess first made waves with her EP Make My Bed, featuring the smash single 1950; she also just last week released the lowkey, lustful Pussy Is God. As she’s an icon for queer fans, it’s fitting that the Basement Theatre’s Queer Thursday returns on the same night; you can head there afterwards if you’re looking for somewhere to keep on dancing. King Princess, Powerstation, tonight
Auckland Town Hall
If you’re a fan of orchestral music, you’re spoiled for choice this weekend. The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra starts things off this evening with music by three composers at the heart of the
classical tradition: Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. On Saturday, the NZ Symphony Orchestra is back in town taking listeners through “an extraordinary varied landscape of sound” with Mahler’s Symphony No 7.
It’s more low key on Sunday when NZ Trio wraps up its 2018 year with violinist Amalia Hall and pianist Somi Kim joining Ashley Brown in a performance which celebrates deep connections through music by international and local composers. APO — Mozart’s Jupiter, Auckland Town Hall, tonight; NZSO — Mahler 7, Auckland Town Hall, Saturday and NZ Trio — Twin, Loft at Q Theatre, Sunday and Tuesday
NZ Maritime Museum
Heritage sailings and maritime history abounds here, so does cutting edge contemporary art.
The museum’s latest installation features sculpture, music, poetry and topology with Waiheke painter and carver Kazu Nakagawa, composer Helen Bowater and designer Andrew Caldwell joining forces to explore human migration and identity.
Why at the Maritime Museum? Because “our journeys carve water, our languages paint voyages”. Nakagawa’s sculpture, modelled on a Niuean outrigger canoe, is accompanied by Bowater’s composition while Caldwell renders the story of migration from Africa to Aotearoa in topographical maps. Carving Water, Painting Voice, NZ Maritime Museum, until March 2