BTDU

Today was the one day at this Thursday-Sunday Art Deco Festival when we had some structure to follow, as we had booked tickets for 3 paid events and had arranged to attend 2 free ones too…so this meant many “costume” changes for Julie 😉

Event 1 – Walking Tour

Under a, by now, very familiar blue sky we made our way to the Art Deco Trust shop for 9 am…

Our walking tour was due to start at 9 am with a short film about the 1931 Earthquake and how the city recovered to become the Art Deco Capital of the World it is today…

So most attendees turned up suitably attired…

The first surprising fact we learned was that, prior to the 1931 Earthquake, Napier was a hill based city overlooking the large, but relatively shallow, Ahuriri Lagoon; when the massive earthquake hit, the ground in the lagoon heaved up 2.7 metres emptying it completely…

…and the second fact was that within 2 years the decisions were made to rebuild the city in the Art Deco style, plan the layout, approve plans etc and complete the build of a new city centre,..

And the following extract explains why the Art Deco style was chosen…

Armed with all that information our tour guide enabled us to see the buildings in a new light since, as is often the case, the devil was in the detail …

Some of the key rules that the planners made were that buildings could be no more than 2 storeys and no pediments would be allowed, as many of the fatalities from the earthquake were caused by falling masonry…

Event 2 – The Vintage Car Parade

This event has been a staple of the AD Festival ever since it’s inception and it’s easy to see why…

…and cue Costume 2

The variety and “showroom condition” of the 200 plus vehicles on display was great testament to their owners, many of whom had personally painstakingly restored them at great expense…

…and the accompanying music helped too…

Event 3 – Charleston Class

After a brief “re- fueling” we took some shots of the air display – which was taking place simultaneously to the parade – then made the 10 minute walk across town to the venue where this classic 20s dance would present the challenge of the day…☺️💃🏽🕺🏽

We joined about 50 other brave souls, most of a certain vintage 😉, in a large hall of St. Patrick’s Church and our tutors for the day were first class…

Suitably inspired after our smile- inducing class we made our way back across town for…

Event 4 – Afternoon Drinks with June

Since June was dropping Bill off for a Stag bash in Napier we had the ideal opportunity for Julie and her to continue their Chatathon over “refreshments”…cue Costume 3…and even I was suitably dressed by now 😉

After I struggled to get a word in edgeways June left to collect Bill, no doubt a tad “under the weather” by now, as we headed back to our hotel for just one more costume change to ready ourselves for…

Event 5 – Art Deco Dine & Dance at the Quay 7 – 11 pm

As a couple who met at a dance we were keen to see if we still knew our Quickstep from our Tango, so scrubbed ourselves up accordingly..

Julie had hailed our carriage for the evening, which went perfectly with her attire…

So we were delighted to see that our chauffeur had delivered us to the right venue…

The atmosphere in this venue was both friendly – especially when we realised that 2 couples we had met at the Charleston class and in a gift shop in the afternoon were also both there; what’s the chances of that happening amongst 30,000 attendees🤔 – and intimate with a jazz trio, The Twin City Stompers no less, providing very classy, danceable music…

The 5 course meal was excellent too…

…and in between courses we could take to the floor and get in the groove…

It came as a bit of shock then, when, shortly after we had finished our meal, the band announced, at 9.40 pm, they were just about to play there last time!

Given that the background music changed to something entirely different we decided to get some shots of the lovely sunset that was developing and got a taxi back to The Soundshell…

…. where the live acts were brill and we got to boogie again 😊🕺🏽💃🏽🎶

And so ended our very Event-ful day😉