Napier - art deco weekend

Napier is a town that was more or less leveled during an earthquake about 75 years ago.

Because nearly all of the downtown area was rebuilt at the same time, it is a time capsule of art deco architecture. In the summer, they put on a huge festival to celebrate the 20's and 30's complete with live music, costumes, and classic cars.


We went up primarily for the dancing, which was really great. There were free concerts and dancing every night at the sound shell




and also live music in the pedestrian mall.


I particularly loved this image of this lady staking her claim for the car parade.. tapping her toes and waving her fingers along with the music until the cars drove by.


There were tons of acts on stage through the afternoons Between performances, music was often played and I loved watching the kids dance to the music. Here are some of my favorite shots.
 


There were classic cars everywhere.

Not only were they part of the very long parade on Saturday


but they also were the only cars allowed to park on the main road and on the beach.




All day long steam tractors pulled wagons of people around.



They also had a mini museum of working steam farm machines on display. They were running all day and late into the night.

More than half the people were in costume. I kept saying to myself “you'd never see this many men in America dressing up” but then again after the sevens I shouldn't be so surprised. Here are some photos from around town as well as the costume competition.











On top of all this there were many airplane displays. Each day there was a mini airshow or two over the town or water. On Sunday everyone gathered for picnics and watched the planes go over head.