Hastings District Libraries

Blossom Festival 2011

This year's Blossom Festival will be held 15 - 25 September 15, with the parade on Saturday 17 September.

See the Festival Programme at: www.visithastings.co.nz/eventlisting/hastings-blossom-festival

1950 - The First Blossom Festival

• After a meeting in March 1950, Greater Hastings Inc was formed to promote Hastings, attract visitors and assert the town's rivalry with Napier which had just become a city. 
• With support from retailers and fruitgrowers, Greater Hastings Inc. organised the first Blossom Week Festival to mark the start of the 1950-51 fruit season. Streets and shop windows were bedecked with paper blossoms. 
• The highlight of the week was the parade with 41 decorated floats. 
• People danced in the streets to band music until around 10.30pm. 
• With the success of the first festival, it then became an annual event, attracting up to 50,000 people some years.  
• Photo right:  Frimley School float 2005

1956 - City of Hastings

• Hastings became a city in 1956 and the Blossom Festival was incorporated into the celebrations.
• Special excursion trains and buses travelled through the night from Wellington, the Wairarapa, the Manawatu and Gisborne bringing in thousands of visitors to the new city.        

• From 1957 a Queen Carnival was held to select the Blossom Queen to ride on one of the floats in the parade, with the runners up, her "princesses".
• Decorated arches were erected across each block of shops in Heretaunga Street.
• Competitions were held for best decorated shop windows.
• Floats became more elaborate year by year, with many hours being spent designing, building and decorating (in secrecy).
• There were two classes of floats: artificial blossoms and natural blossoms, with fierce competition in both.
• Bands and marching teams also featured in the parades.

1960 - The Second "Battle of Hastings"

• In 1960 rain delayed the parade. Many visitors sought shelter in bars and brawls broke out in the street, some quelled by fire hoses.
• This was dubbed "The Second Battle of Hastings" and was even reported overseas.

1972 - Last Blossom Festival of this era

•  The effort involved in decorating floats, streets and shop windows, was telling and the standard of the earlier years was hard to sustain.
• The last Blossom Festival of this era was held in 1972.

1980s - Blossom Festivals Reinstated      

• In the 1980s the Blossom Festivals were reinstated and have now grown into a ten day event of music and drama performances, a market, a carnival and, of course, the parade.
• The modern parade has all the elements of the early parades, but now includes participation from many cultural groups, celebrating our diversity.
• The fruit trees still blossom and new lambs play in the paddocks, but now the vineyards and olive groves are budding up as well.  The Hastings District is a wonderful place to be in spring.
• Photo right:  Former Blossom Queens took part in the 2006 parade, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Hastings becoming a city        

Sources

• City of the plains : A history of Hastings by M. B. Boyd
• Town and country - the history of Hastings and district by Matthew Wright