KEY POINTS:
"It's like Christmas, when you're waiting to open the presents," a chipper Art Deco Trust Event Manager Peter Mooney said today as he pondered what tourism guru Lonely Planet has to say about the spiffing festival.
On Friday a contributor to the Lonely Planet tourism guides told him Napier's Geon Art Deco Weekend had received a colourful and glowing write-up in the Lonely Planet Year of Festivals book.
"We had no idea they were here. They just go out and do their own thing."
Lonely Planet has just released the latest book and lists the Geon Art Deco Weekend at the top of the four New Zealand festivals profiled.
"I'm as keen as mustard to see it and have ordered a copy ... I should get it on Wednesday," Mooney said.
The big weekend was the only one of the four to to be fully mentioned and highlighted.
Art Deco got the nod over the Wildfoods Festival in Hokitika, the Golden Shears in Masterton and the World Buskers Festival in Christchurch.
One paragraph released on the Lonely Planet website declared: "It is a time where everyone is thinking ziggurats and jazz, and when there is enough fur trim and bow ties to make Al Capone smile. Napier is art deco obsessed, complete with an employed art deco ambassador."
Making the book was a huge accolade, Mr Mooney said.
- HAWKE'S BAY TODAY
