Fruity Hooties

The Fruity Hooties are a band of blokes paying tribute to Carmen Miranda, each one a Carmen with a name like Carmen Up, Carmen Over or Carmen Back. The music is rhythmic, danceable Latin, and they interact with the crowd as they play. They're fully mobile and play without a PA, so they can set up wherever people have gathered: festivals, shopping centres, parades, parties and corporate functions. There's a five-piece and a three-piece version, and a Carmen on stilts can come along to finish the picture. They can also swap the horns for drums and play a percussion set covering samba reggae, West African, Afro-Cuban, Caribbean and Brazilian samba, as well as funk, house and doof. A Latin theme night or a Carnival event is the obvious match. Their festival run has taken in the Brunswick Street Music Festival, Stonnington's Glow, the Pako Festival down in Geelong and Manningham's multicultural festival. They're based in Melbourne.