Hastings District Libraries

Blossom Festival

See the Festival Programme at www.visithastings.co.nz

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.  

From a free reading room to computerised services, the Hastings Library has evolved over many years. Our buildings have been built, fallen down (literally), moved, rebuilt and extended, to provide a much used community service in the heart of Hastings.

Photo: The old Hastings Library building in Market Street South, destroyed in the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake.

The Hastings District was devastated by the 1931 earthquake.  The damaged buildings were replaced by strongly reinforced buildings in the Art Deco and Spanish Mission styles. 

Some buildings did survive the earthquake, so we now have an interesting mixture of architectural styles and some very fine buildings.