Jack loved his ride on Awesome. Photo / Dave Murdoch
Jack loved his ride on Awesome. Photo / Dave Murdoch
Warm sun and a large number of stalls and entertainment brought visitors to Norsewood’s Country Festival.
The Tararua District village was the entertainment centre on Labour Weekend when the Norsewood And Districts school held its 150th Jubilee, the village put on a historical display and the festival was held at Mathews Park.
Saturday was the best day climatically with the sun shining warmly and about 600 visitors coming through the gate to enjoy a large number of stalls and non-stop entertainment from 10am-9pm.
Charlotte Keenan from Whanganui had all kinds of clothes to sell. Photo / Dave Murdoch
Most of the stalls came from outside of Tararua District. Charlotte Keenan for example who, after spending four years with the touring Gypsy Circus has adopted the brand “Unlost Gypsy”, based at Whanganui and was visiting fairs and festivals with her variety of colourful clothing.
Jane and Aiden from Masterton offered body art like temporary tattoos and other items like dream catchers. Photo / Dave Murdoch
Regular visitor The Tinker was there as usual with his vast array of silver ornaments and Jane and Aiden had come up from Masterton to sell their Castaway Body Art Skills.
A good sprinkling of locals sold their crafts: Ella-Rose Hughes with her creature creations, her dad Graeme selling his beautiful knives and other steelware, 13-year-old Isobelle Heald offering balms and bath salts under her brand Be You Tiful and Joy Chrystal from Takapau selling her exquisite jewellery.
The Catrick Band played “Barbeque Ribs”. Photo / Dave Murdoch
There were two stages offering entertainment alternately every hour, with The Catrick Band featuring Felix Guerrero from Texas being the feature during the day but other visitors like Trixie and Cam, Maria Williams, the Tim Hall Band and Detour going late into the night.
Beyond the centrally-located stalls, the Western Horse Riding Show and Sassy Saddles put on spectacular equestrian displays as well as giving children rides through most of the day, while a stationary engine display from Hawera demonstrated that not all horsepower energy needed to be mobile.
Liam Eriksen (the Viking of New Zealand) of Impact Pro Wrestling threw his opponent to the canvas. Photo / Dave Murdoch
Tucked behind the food tents a spectacular ring created by Impact Pro Wrestling featured giant humans such as appropriately-named Liam Erikson, known as The Viking Of New Zealand, throwing bodies about with ferocious energy, every landing worth an HIA check in rugby terms.
Sean from Hawke’s Bay Street Theatre juggled fire and balls on his unicycle. Photo / Dave Murdoch
At 2pm the food stall area was partly cleared to allow the Heidi and Sean Show to perform. They displayed a huge range of street theatre skills, Heidi ‘swallowing fire’ and cracking with a whip noodles held by Sean in his hands, and assisting Sean to juggle balls and fire while on a tall unicycle. Audience participation was popular and they attracted a crowd of more than 100.
Sunday the weather turned and a bedraggled festival carried on but a much smaller crowd came to visit.
Organiser Eva Renbjor was philosophical about the weather saying Saturday made it all worthwhile.
