For ten years The Duke Festival has celebrated surf and skate culture through the lens of community and inclusion, as well as cultural and artistic events — most notably for us, the Stoked exhibition and Carve street art installation. Both of them feature familiar and emerging names, connecting the festival with the worlds of street art and graffiti as well as broader artistic worlds. For any event, especially one with the scale of The Duke, to thrive for a decade, it takes a lot of work behind the scenes — securing funding, bringing ideas to life, managing artists and participants, promoting and more — and on the bustling opening night, we were lucky enough to chat with two of the figures (and Watch This Space friends) who have tirelessly worked to bring The Duke’s artistic events to reality: head of the festival’s arts programming and Stoked curator Georgia Harmon, and Carve organiser Dark Ballad.
Dark Ballad and The Carve Street Art Trail
Carve emerged as a new feature of The Duke in 2025, a trail of life-sized surfboard shaped wooden artworks installed around New Brighton Mall, created by an array of local street and graffiti artists. In 2026, Dark Ballad once again presents Carve, but this time as a more cohesive outdoor ‘exhibition’, the line-up of boards displayed along the hoarding neighbouring Southpaw Brew Bar. The boards, each available for sale, provide a wide-ranging selection of styles, with creations by Jacobyikes, Joel Hart, Dcypher, Ikarus, Klaudia Bartos, Orgn, Smeagol, Masked Artist, Daken, Temu, Alias, Ekos, Gemma Rae and Gnome…
WTS: Here we are for year two of Carve, how are you feeling about the collection of works you’ve put together this year?
Dark Ballad: I’m very excited about the collection this year. Like, dare I say I prefer it. Maybe I shouldn’t say prefer, but I think this year people saw what happened last year and they really went all out. There is just a good eclectic bunch of different styles of artists: street artists, traditional artists, up-and-coming artists, straight ahead graffiti artists.
A diplomatic answer! Practically, what evolved from year one into year two in terms of how you went through the process?
Last year Carve was a trail around New Brighton Mall, which was good for interactivity and tours, but I felt that it lacked a bit of impact when they weren’t together. When you stick them on a wall by themselves, it’s fun to find them, but when they are placed together, it’s much more impressive. So organizationally, we decided to not do the trail this year and see if we can get them all on one wall. It turned out a lot of people used similar colour schemes, like a lot of blue, a lot of sea stuff, so on the wall it looks cohesive. But I didn’t want it to feel like token sea stuff, we wanted to split them up, so it was clear that there is street art and that it’s a graffiti exhibition as well. The other thing was that I didn’t know Sea Signals was coming and obviously there is some similarity there, so when I found out about that, I asked the graffiti guys to actually do graffiti and not just try to fit into the sea theme. That made sure it was more unique.
Carve is obviously part of the wider Duke Festival. How do you view the relationship between surf culture, skate culture, and graffiti and urban art lens?
I sort of see all these counter-cultural subcultures as one, you know? Skate, hip-hop, graffiti, those three especially, I think, all go together. And you add surfing, like if you’re near a beach and you’re a skater, you likely surf as well. So, they all blend together. The other thing is that everyone is pretty adaptable and the board shape is really interesting, so it invites overlap. Like, a lot of graffiti artists like to crop their work, and the board is a good format for that…
The other thing you instilled last year was a strong connection to the New Brighton area, which is something that is part of your personal history. Was that something that you were looking for this year as well?
I think this year it is broader. There are still some New Brighton artists in there, but we almost ran the gamut last year of ones that would fit the bill. I didn’t want to repeat people over and over again; I wanted to switch people out each year. There are just a couple of returning artists this year, but most people are all east side adjacent or have lived here at some time, most people also have some form of art in the area as well.
A lot of last year’s boards are still on display in the mall. What will happen with the works this year?
It’s a full-on exhibition this year, so all of the boards are for sale for $500 each, which is a bargain, you know, like a Jacobyikes piece of that size is usually a lot more! I’m hoping for a lot of sales. Ultimately, they won’t stay up because the wall is an artwork by Chileone, so any that don’t sell will have to find new homes.
How long will people have the chance to see the works?
They should be up for about two weeks, and then we’ll take them down. So, message me or The Duke Festival if you want to buy one!
Who do you want to acknowledge for bringing Carve to life again in 2026?
Obviously, Georgia, we worked together on Carve last year as a team, and this year she handed over the reins to me, but she was still the go-to if anything went wrong because she knows New Brighton like the back of her hand. Rata Foundation are the main sponsor, which was great. Gordon Harris, they’re always super keen to throw vouchers at us! We’ve actually got a giveaway on at the moment on the Duke Instagram page. I also want to thank Corners of Christchurch as well for his amazing photography and keenness to be a part of the scene!
Georgia Harmon and the art of The Duke Festival
Any event that has run for ten years must be on to a good thing – and for New Brighton artist Georgia Harmon, who has a long involvement with the festival – part of the beauty of The Duke is the wide-ranging focus on inclusivity, community and creativity. As head of arts programming, we chatted with Georgia about this year’s events, how the arts focus has evolved and how The Duke is, at its heart, a reflection of the New Brighton community…
WTS: So, 10 years of The Duke! How long have you been involved in the festival?
GH: I’ve been involved for about five years now.
Your role goes beyond the art events, but the festival’s art elements are a vital part for you, right?
Yeah. I’m head of arts now for the festival. We have been hosting Stoked since the start and it’s kind of evolved from being surfer art to actually reflecting the New Brighton community.
That feels fitting as The Duke has become really ingrained as part of New Brighton’s identity. Ten years of anything is pretty amazing now, and for a community like New Brighton, which has seen so much change, it is so important to have events that people can look forward to. As you mentioned, you’ve got the Stoked exhibition, we just chatted with Dark Ballad about the Carve boards, how do you see the kind of curatorial approach to The Duke’s art events?
We’re trying to reflect what New Brighton has been and will be in the future. So, I think the inclusion of graffiti writers and street artists and linking them with exhibition opportunities is really important. It creates a sense of connection because that is what the festival is all about, connecting people. Duke Kahanamoku, he brought surfing here, but, like, you can definitely see that skateboarding has come from surfing, and then skateboarding has a really big link to graffiti and street art and that sort of thing as well. So, I think just linking the art to the sports and knowing where it’s come from and the whakapapa of the whole thing is really important.
Have you found that there’s a recurring sort of community of creatives that you’re drawing on and growing?
Yeah.
You must take joy in seeing people evolve over the various incarnations of Stoked and the festival?
Yeah, absolutely. It’s really cool to see more artists getting involved in the exhibitions, especially locals and artists who are doing art in their own time for fun and then emerging into the scene. I think that’s really cool. A lot of them are really young and they’re like the next generation. I think it’s really important to look after the next generation and encourage them to do something with their work. Also, they’re all crazy talented, every single one of them!
I would guess it’s the same as the grommet competitions for surfers?
Yeah, it’s looking after the kids, you know? All the profits, the benefits for the work, you know, that pays for free surf lessons for east side kids. So that in itself is really rad. I think that’s what draws artists in as well.
Any particular highlights that you want to acknowledge for people to come and check out?
We’ve got the Stoked art exhibition at the Village Green, then Carve, which is just across the mall next to Southpaw. We’ve also got a youth band battle on tomorrow night (Friday 20 March) and it’s pretty much all jazz, punk and metal! So that’s going to be cool. That’s at 6pm on Friday. And then we’ve got the big Salty Sessions gig on Saturday night (Saturday 21 March) with King Tides, Single Malt and Casual Healing. We’ve got some Japanese drummers opening that event, and the winner of the youth band battle gets a paid slot to open for the bigger bands, so it’s another layer of connection and community that we’ve put in there.
What a rad event – get amongst it! In terms of Stoked and Carve, how can people check them out?
Stoked is open from 10am till 4 from Friday through to Sunday at the Village Green. If people want to buy a Carve board, they can either email us ([email protected]) or come to the Village Green hut and someone will be here who can take payment. All the boards are $500, which is pretty amazing considering some of the artists there. And, of course, all profit goes to surf safety lessons for east side youth!
Thank you Georgia! I hope the rest of the festival goes well…
Awesome. Thanks!
The Duke Festival runs from March 19th – March 22nd, 2026 – follow @dukefestivalofsurfing or visit https://www.dukefestivalofsurfingnz.com/ for the festival schedule!
