Fog at airport delays music stars ahead of Art Deco Festival

Karoline Roberts from the Hawke's Bay Jazz Club Big Band rehearses in Ahuriri. Photo / Duncan Brown

Morning fog at Hawke's Bay Airport on Saturday delayed three music stars ahead of this week's Tremains Art Deco Festival.

Sole3 Mio's Moses Mackay, Esther Stephens (known for Go Girls/Westside) and Tama Waipara, who won Best Roots Album at the 2014 VMAs, were due in Napier on Saturday morning for a rehearsal before their appearance at the festival this Friday.

The three artists will take to the stage for the main event, the new Friday Night with the Stars at the Napier Sound Shell, with Michael Griffiths (Australian multiple award-winning cabaret performer), Debbie Harwood (When the Cat's Away) and Anna Pierard with Project Prima Volta, all backed by Hawke's Bay Jazz Club Big Band.

Festival director Glen Pickering said the three artists were due to land at Hawke's Bay Airport at 10.45am on an Air New Zealand flight from Auckland but had to turn back due to fog.

The artists will now arrive on Thursday and rehearse on Friday ahead of the concert.

Saturday's planned rehearsal at the Tabard Theatre in Ahuriri went ahead with Anna Pierard and members of Project Prima Volta as well as Hawke's Bay Jazz Club Big Band.

Project Prima Volta sounded amazing and were all on point due to hours of training for the upcoming opera Madame Butterfly, Mr Pickering said.

They were so good that Mr Pickering was excited to imagine how the students would sound in 10 years' time.

Michael Griffiths is due to arrive in the middle of the week from Australia.

Tama Waipara said he was not originally supposed to perform but had been asked to step in after his friend and top jazz artist Nathan Haines had to pull out due to a throat cancer diagnosis last year.

On Saturday Waipara will also perform alongside Mr Haines' brother Joel and Esther Stephens for the Nathan Haines Benefit Concert to support the artist's recovery.

"It's great of the festival to get behind him and support him in that way," Waipara said.

"It will be a difficult journey for him over the next few months.

"Hopefully people will come and support the show."

Waipara said he is looking forward to performing as part of Friday Night with the Stars which he expects will be a great night of music with lots of popular songs.

He will be singing New York, New York which seems fitting because he had spent eight years in the American city, the artist said.

Waipara has performed in Hawke's Bay many times before but never in the festival and said he is looking forward to the atmosphere.

"I love Napier, I think it's a beautiful city."

Friday Night with the Stars is being held for the first time to celebrate the festival's 30th anniversary, with some of New Zealand music's biggest stars singing classics from the Art Deco era.

The Tremains Art Deco Festival runs from Wednesday to Sunday.