Aotea Square

The fourth edition brought ASIAN(SOUND)SCAPES to Aotea Square — a free, all-ages early evening as part of Auckland Live’s Summer in the Square series (30 January – 22 February 2026), timed for Lunar New Year and supported by Auckland Council Events and the city centre targeted rate.

From five until eight under the summer evening sky, the square ran the full breadth of contemporary Pan-Asian sound: Chinese-Kiwi indie-pop from Raging Flowers, message-driven Kiwi-Japanese rap from XPLSV, Korean-New Zealand hip hop and R&B from Newko, plus tee., dāndān, the cinematic soul-pop of Ersha Island 二沙岛, Tei, and Kin-Kachow’s Thai-and-Nepalese-rooted grooves to close.

As Under The Radar put it in the season preview: “Lunar New Year comes alive through soulful jazz, indie pop, alt-rock and contemporary pan-Asian sounds.”