A bunch of Elvis Presleys and a can of baked beans

Japanese TV presenter Ayako Imoto bolts down the wharf as a flying Ninja. Russell Birdman Festival 2013

The Russell Birdman Festival is in its eighth quirky year and is now recognized as the largest winter festival in Northland.

The main Birdman event sees adults leaping from the wharf with bird-like grace and poise dressed as Elvis Presley or a Can of Baked Beans. Or anything really. And several other unique-to-Russell events have become part of the draw of this three-day festival.

The Drag Race - men dressed as women with handbags at fifty paces to tackle an assault course - is pure spectator enjoyment on The Strand and has become as popular as flying off the wharf. There's a spaghetti eating challenge and a mini Ironman along the way and this year sees the introduction of a street party on the Friday night of the Drag Race. How on earth did it all begin?

"The idea was to have some fun in winter and generate some business during the quietest time of the year," says Phil Ball, one of the original organizers.

"We threw the idea around and nurtured it over a week or so until it took hold. Then, at the end of the wharf and with arms waving drawing imaginary scenes, the idea well and truly blossomed."

"Within a day we had gone from convincing a few local characters to jump off the wharf to a week long winter festival!"

Those originally involved include Toni Ball, Bridget Hughes (now Chair of the Birdman Charitable Trust), Peter Stuart, Gary Hoosen and Pania Sigley

Local business people were drawn in to generate support and a date was set for mid-winter 2006. Flyers and posters were issued, prizes were allocated and volunteers roped in to help and with only a week to go, there was one solitary entry.

"Pressure was applied to family, friends and any other likely candidates and Russell being Russell, on the day before the event we had an incredible twenty-one entries!"

Russell Birdman is now a registered trust funding a scholarships to Russell Primary School and in 2013 the festival became a three-day event attracting around 5,000 spectators. Kind weather has contributed to the success of the Birdman Festival and now, eight years after the first event, Birdman pumps as much business into the town as a busy summer weekend.

Blah Blah Marketing became involved a few years back and have marketed the event in Auckland and elsewhere by encouraging visitors to make a holiday of the multi day festival.

There are plans to orchestrate a national competition (Queenstown and Auckland both have birdman festivals) and perhaps to ultimately tie in Russell Birdman to Bognor Regis in the UK for a truly international fly off.