By Leon Gray-Lockhart
WHILE 'Art in the Park' is something of an institution in Hawera, Saturday, March 21, was the first time the event had been held in Eltham and, according to event organisers, proved to be a huge success.
"It was great to see the public get behind the event," said Tarin Hunt, I-site and events co-ordinator for South Taranaki District Council, "and you could see people really enjoyed the day."
With around 300 people passing through on the day, Eltham's Taumata Park came alive with colour, creativity, busy chatter and the sound of busker, singer Cecily Shaw.
"The number of people at the event was about what we anticipated, though the beautiful weather certainly helped things along and the 30 or so stallholders were pleased with the result."
Stallholders said they loved the park setting and the relaxed atmosphere, especially enjoying being in a different town.
"There was no charge for stallholders to set up a stand. However, they had to be selling original creations that is, the handmade and the homemade, not mass-produced items."
With stallholders coming from as far north as Waitara and as far south as Wanganui, having plenty of items in a wide variety of styles on display was never going to be a problem.
"The idea behind Art in the Park is to get local arts and crafts in front of the public and I think this new variation on our original Hawera event has been really successful."
Building on the success of this inaugural event in Eltham will be one of the things that Tarin hopes to do next year, and presently she is waiting for the official feedback from stallholders to help develop the event.
Arty Eltham shines
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