Princess Chelsea’s Midwinter Ball – The Civic/Wintergarden: July 18, 2026
Cold weather be damned! Princess Chelsea invited all of Auckland to celebrate the season with another Midwinter Ball and the response was so great it was expanded to two nights.
So despite the nip in the air, we bundled up and dressed up according to the events theme which was advertised as “Swords and Sorcery: Fantasy On The Big Screen“. The exact meaning is open to interpretation, which gave license to the crowd to dress up any way they liked. Freedom of choice!
Three bands were lined up for the occasion.
I missed openers Golden Axe (a guy’s gotta eat)…but fortunately 13th Floor Photographer Chris Zwaagdyk was on the scene and captured these images:
We did arrive in time to catch Grecco Romank who got things jumping with their 80s-inspired version of electronica…was that a cover of the Pet Shop Boys‘ It’s A Sin I heard mixed among songs from their album, Arts Colony? Â Yes, it was. And here is what they looked like:
There was plenty do do in-between sets…photo ops, people to meet, even a sword ready to pull from a stone. The mood was suitably celebratory so that by the time 10pm rolled around Princess Chelsea and her band were on the stage and everyone was feeling much warmer than when they came in.
There were times when the vocals were a bit hard to hear, but the energy of the performance came through loud and clear. And since a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll stop banging on the keyboard and let you scroll through more photos, thanks to Mr. Zwaagdyk.
It all happens again tonight!
Marty Duda
And here are more photos from Chris, because the audience was as much a part of the show as the bands:
