Pack your favorite flapper look, shine your Charleston-dancing shoes and get ready to sip some bootlegger booze when the style of the 1920s and ’30s descends on Napier, New Zealand. From February 19-23, more than 40,000 lovers of Art Deco architecture, vintage cars and Great Gatsby glamour will head to the Hawke’s Bay coast of New Zealand’s North Island, for the Napier Art Deco Festival.
In 1931, a devastating earthquake rocked Hawke’s Bay and destroyed most of the Napier city center and nearby sister city, Hastings. The cities began immediately rebuilding in the architectural styles of the time: Stripped Classical, Spanish Mission and the era’s favorite, Art Deco. Since the 1990s, efforts to protect and preserve these buildings have maintained Napier as an Art Deco mecca in the Southern Hemisphere.
Celebrating in Style
Every February, Napier comes alive as a perfect period film set, celebrating the history and heritage of Art Deco. Some of the festival’s annual events include a vintage car parade, architecture tours of downtown Napier, and parties celebrating the Roaring Twenties, the Jazz Age and even the Great Depression.
Make the right connections to score an invite to the secretive Prohibition Pop Up Party. Take a break from the glamour at the dressed-down Depression Dinner. And dance the night away at the Mission Estate Winery ‘s extravagant Great Gatsby Party with showgirls, champagne and costumed players.
Art Deco is alive and thriving in New Zealand and the Napier Art Deco Festival has become a pilgrimage for lovers of the architectural style.
For more information and event details visit artdeconapier.com