Up The Punks ...

Punk's Not Dead at an exhibition of music's greatest genre …

The crowd was as mixed as the exhibition itself. Young punks, old punks, baby punks, goths, emos, and people like myself way too boring to attract a label, mingled at Wellington's Thistle Hall for the opening night of a display of vast amounts of ephemera going back to the far-off days of punk rock's heyday.

Up The Punks is a celebration of the capital's punk scene going back to 1977. Plastered all over the tiny venue's walls were gig posters, photographs, newspaper articles, zine covers and what-have-yous. Curated by John Lake and reliant on contributions from a number of people among them Skippy (aka Jim Gardener), it's a showcase for a semi-underground scene that's surviving in the third decade of this putrid century.

Up The Punks is on from October 22 to October 27 at the Thistle Hall on Cuba Street in Wellington.