The Civic
Why go
The Civic is the most beautiful room in Auckland and one of the last of its kind anywhere. It opened in 1929 as the country's first purpose-built cinema for talkies, and it was built to make an ordinary night out feel like something else entirely — a Moorish garden at dusk, with turrets and minarets around the walls, panthers guarding the proscenium, and a ceiling of stars and drifting clouds overhead. It very nearly didn't survive the nineties. It did, and it was restored, and it is now a Category 1 heritage building that still works for its living as a theatre, a cinema and a music venue.
What to expect
A 2,378-seat auditorium that people photograph before the show starts. The stars come on before the lights go down, which is the moment worth arriving for. The Grand Foyer is worth ten minutes on its own — carved surfaces on every plane, deep reds and blues, elephants holding up the columns once you start noticing them. There's a bar for a pre-show drink, and the Wintergarden downstairs runs smaller gigs and events. The screen is one of the largest in the country, which is why NZIFF and the big film events come here. If you want to see it properly lit and empty, Auckland Live run tours through the season.
