Winter Deco soiree 'best yet'

FESTIVE:Emily Coppell from Encore Dancers from the Born to Move Dance studio enthralls audiences at the weekend's winter Deco celebrations. PHOTO PAUL TAYLOR

With nearly all tickets sold, this weekend's annual winter time celebration of the city's Art Deco architecture is being heralded as the most successful yet.

From the Winter Deco Welcome to the Farewell Soiree, Art Deco Trust general manager Sally Jackson said the Hawke's Bay Toyota Winter Deco Weekend had been "absolutely fantastic".

"We're generally really excited across the board, and all the feedback has been very positive," she said. "We've sold more tickets than ever before, and there have been more visitors from out of town."

This is the 13th year a winter celebration has been held since its inception in 2003, as the partner to the major Art Deco Weekend which draws thousands of people to Napier from throughout the world each February.

This year, 97 per cent of tickets for the weekend's 24 events were sold, a "huge jump up" from the 84 per cent of tickets sold for last year's event.

"It's growing a lot, and each year it just seems to build," Ms Jackson said.
A number of events, including the Movie Magic Dinner, the Royal Flush Casino Night, and the Speakeasy Burlesque on Saturday had been sold out.

While some events always sold out very quickly, Ms Jackson said this year's new Red Hot Martini Club, held at the County Hotel, had sold out only weeks after going on sale.
"It's good to keep turning over events and making sure that there's always something new," Ms Jackson said.

It was also important to have events which attracted both older, and younger participants, which the Red Hot Martini Club had "hit the mark" with.