Doing the Time Warp in Napier

It’s a chance to twirl your pearls and arrange your kiss curls; to drink at a speakeasy and pat the nose of a shiny Packard; to walk the promenade and dance to Dixieland jazz....

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During the Brebner Print Art Deco Weekend (19-22 February, 2004), Napier kicks up its heels to relive the exuberant days of the 1920s and 1930s. Nearly sixty events will keep the city fizzing with fun, including a Gatsby Picnic, a Bathing Belle competition (complete with authentic bathing costumes), the Depression Dinner, Bi-Plane rides and guided walks around Napier's premier art deco sites.

The rebuilding of Napier was heavily influenced by the fashionable architectural style of the time, which is now known as art deco but then was called simply 'modernistic'. The style provided what building owners and architects most required - simplicity (quick to build), economy (it was the trough of the Depression) and safety (no ornate embellishments to fall on people during an earthquake).

By 1934, Napier could truly be described as the world's most modern city. For a small, conservative town to embrace modernism so completely is one of the aspects of Napier which appeals to visitors.

Napier's art-deconess was largely ignored until the early 1980s, when it dawned on a group of locals that here was a unique collection of buildings, built at a time when the building industry worldwide had all but closed down. In 1985 the Art Deco Trust was formed to preserve, enhance and promote Napier's art deco era buildings.

From the start, the Art Deco Trust made plans to attract visitors to Napier and promote art deco as the city's point of difference. The trust has encouraged shops, restaurants and businesses with authentic interiors to retain and improve them. The Art Deco Walk operates year round as a self-guided or guided tour of the city's most notable modernistic architecture. The Napier Museum and Art Gallery have a permanent exhibition of art deco objet d'art.

	Jazzing it up in Napier, Hawke's Bay.
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	The Gatsby Picnic with 20's and 30's style trappings
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Visitors often combine the Art Deco Weekend with the district's other attractions. The gannet sanctuary at Cape Kidnappers is a memorable trip, or you can follow the Kidnappers Escape Art, Food & Wine Trail. And it would be impossible to visit the Hawke's Bay without succumbing to the pleasures of the vine. There are more than thirty vineyards in the region, and most come complete with a restaurant. Chardonnay is the local specialty, but Hawke's Bay cabernet sauvignon and merlot are regular award winners in wine competitions.