‘I’m so cold’: Dunedin dances in the light of Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights

What makes a group of strangers dress in red and dance together in public on a cold winter’s day? Tara Ward finds out. 

It’s a bitterly cold Dunedin morning when a bright red wave of Kate Bush lookalikes gathers in the Octagon to dance. By noon, the temperature is a brutal four degrees (feels like -0, according to the weather app), and as the winter sun peeks through the grey clouds above Dunedin’s city centre, the group of dancers dressed in red waits quietly. When the opening piano notes of Kate Bush’s song ‘Wuthering Heights’ burst out, they begin to move in unison, lifting their arms and waving them above their heads. As their crimson clothes blow in the icy wind, Bush sings the famous line that today takes on a new meaning: “Heathcliff it’s me, I’m Cathy, I’ve come home… I’m so cold.”

The Octagon may be a long way from the wily, windy moors of West Yorkshire, but on Saturday, 130 people came to dance like they really were a chilly ghost looking for their lover. It was Dunedin’s celebration of The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever, a global event that pays tribute to Bush’s 1979 hit song (inspired by Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel) about the tortured relationship between Heathcliff and Cathy. The first Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever was held in 2016, taking its lead from a 2013 English flash mob dance that attempted to set an unofficial world record for the most Kate Bushes in one place. 

Now on a weekend in late July (Bush and Brontë share a July 30 birthday), aspiring Cathys and Kates gather around the world, dressed in red to reenact Bush’s evocative dance from the Wuthering Heights video (19-year-old Bush filmed two videos for the song, one of which featured her wearing a floaty red dress in a Wiltshire field as she performed a theatrical interpretive dance that she choreographed herself). In 2026, more than 33 cities and towns – including Wellington, New Plymouth and Raglan – took part in the Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever, with Dunedin the southernmost town in the world to mark the event.

Former circus ringmaster and current Dunedin city councillor Mandy Mayhem-Bullock has organised Dunedin’s Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever for the past seven years, after a friend reckoned the event would be “right up her alley”. To Mayhem-Bullock, this is more than just a dance – it’s a vital burst of colour and community in the middle of a long, dark southern winter. The Dunedin performance raises funds for local mental health charity Weka, and Mayhem-Bullock sees the event as supporting the health and wellbeing of the wider Otago district. “We make this dull, concrete jungle vibrant for the day,” she says. “Everybody’s cheeks are glowing, and everyone’s smiling.” 

Last year, dancers came from as far as Blackball on the West Coast; this year, one dancer travelled all the way from Nelson. Mayhem-Bullock reckons the anticipation has been building for weeks, and Saturday’s turnout is the biggest yet. “People come in their groups, they’ve got their outfits ready and they’ve obviously been practising. It’s amazing.” One group of enthusiastic Kates made the five-hour car journey south from Christchurch, and as the clock ticks closer to noon, they practise their Wuthering Height moves with their Dunedin friend Kate (not an alias).

“Kate Bush brought us here,” one of the Christchurch Kates explains. After the friends attended a Kate Bush tribute concert, they saw a YouTube video of the most southern Wuthering Heights Day and decided Dunedin was where they wanted to be. “Life’s about whimsy,” a second Kate adds, wrapping her coat tightly around her. The Christchurch Kates were determined not to let the freezing conditions affect their day, no matter how “fucking cold” it was. “Where else can you come together with all your mates like this and just enjoy each other’s company?”

Mandy Mayhem-Bullock (far left, with microphone) awards the prize for the three best-dressed Kate Bushes (Photo: Martÿn Buyck)

It’s also the first time that Dunedin woman Sylvia has ever danced in public dressed as Kate Bush. “I thought, why not give it a try? I have no dance experience, but I’m actually having fun.” Not only is there the novelty of dancing in the Octagon, but Sylvia has discovered that spinning and kicking alongside 129 other Kate Bushes is the perfect ice-breaker. “Everyone’s so cold to start, but once we did the first run-through and a few people knocked into each other, it’s just really inclusive.”

That inclusivity is important to Mayhem-Bullock, who holds the event in the city centre rather than in a local field because the Octagon is a flat, accessible space. It’s also important that the Wuthering Heights moves are adaptable for everyone, and dancers are encouraged to participate however they can. “I can’t do the great big kicks or the deep back bends that Kate Bush did in her youth,” Mayhem-Bullock chuckles. “We’re not about shaming people – we’d rather have people join in and just dance their own moves than miss out.” 

Photo: Tara Ward

Mayhem-Bullock leads the group in a final rehearsal, reminding them of some of the more iconic actions (though Bush probably didn’t call them “licking the dinner plates” or “big slalom” back in 1979). A group of curious onlookers watches on with smiles, drawn in by the unusual scene. “I love it when some unsuspecting person is casually walking through the Octagon and stops in their tracks, like, ‘what is going on here?’” says Mayhem-Bullock, who always brings a dress-up box of spare red shirts and scarves for any random passers-by who get caught up in the Kate Bush moment.  

After one last run-through of plate-licking, zombie walks and big slaloms, Mayhem-Bullock checks the time on the town hall clocktower behind her. It’s finally noon, and Bush’s delicate, eerie voice floats out from the speakers for the final time. The dancers move together like a crimson tide, swaying and pulling, the red wigs and flower crowns and long capes rising and falling as Bush’s voice soars above the Octagon’s historic buildings. They lunge, they lift, they sing along, this gothic song in this gothic city. Their joy is contagious. It’s not so cold any more.

More Reading ...