The Bowl of Brooklands sits in a stunning natural setting within Pukekura Park in New Plymouth, the closest city to Waitara where original Dragon member Todd Hunter was born early in the 1950s.

My recall of going to family friendly shows there as a teenager in the early 60s was the calm of the little amphitheatre at night before a show began. And of the sheer beauty of the setting. The stage has been built over the water with the small lake (with the requisite common brown ducks) between it & the audience. I can still remember 1960s ducks quacking in objection to interruptions to their nightly routine at moments when there was a pause in the delivery of the music.

It’s great that the venue is now being used annually to host the Womad Festival. It is now many decades since I lived in New Plymouth but the grapevine had told me that Dragon was to play on Saturday March 17, during this years’ festival. And one of those in that network provided the photo below taken during Dragon’s performance. He also noted that the crowd were right into the performance & that a large percentage of this audience were young people who could never have heard those songs as they grew up. At those moments where the band hand over to the crowd, collectively they took up the mantle & kept the music going across the lake, especially with April Sun and Rain.

Dragon always delivers. Long live Dragon!!