The Art Deco Trust in Napier, has recently celebrated its 21st annual Art Deco Weekend, which has grown every year since its inception in the 80s. I was lucky enough to have attended the latest one, with several thousand attendees – a far cry from the very first Art Deco Weekend that I helped organise, where we managed to amass about a hundred or so enthusiastic people. At the first weekend, we had a total of 4 events, and it all took place over a day and a half; whereas now it has hundreds of events and takes all week. I had to organise the vintage 1930s car parade, which fortunately was one of the easier events I’ve ever had to organise: I just rang up the local Ford club, and they said they would be happy to come and how many cars would we like to arrive (we settled for around 10 cars, from memory).
Now the car parade has grown to such a massive scale that it is having to be limited in numbers to just a few hundred so that the audience don’t get exhausted. The cars are superb: nearly all are from the 1930s era suitable to the earthquake and the rebuilt city, and apparently the Napier run is now a central part of car enthusiasts annual calendar.
The architecture is the thing that remains the same – in fact, it has improved over time, with careful nurturing and painting of the city’s stock, Napier now really truly can take the title of The Art Deco Capital of the World. Read More