Hawke's Bay: deco design and fine wine
03 March 2026
Spend a weekend discovering art deco architecture, great food and exceptional wine in Hawke's Bay.
Behind the scenes of the Napier Art Deco Festival
What does it take to transport a whole city back to the Jazz Age for a weekend?
What does it take to close off whole city for a weekend? The Napier Art Deco Festival, which has been held in the heart of Hawke’s Bay for more than two decades, sees thousands of festival goers from around the region, the country and the world celebrate the style and spirit of the Jazz Age.
Glitzy 1930s glamour, free public entertainment, a soapbox derby, vintage cars, aerial displays and more than 145 events make up the festival programme in a cornucopia of classic culture.
The city of Napier comes alive for the annual Art Deco Festival.
“I call it ‘the beast’, because the festival is just huge,” says Jonathan Smith MNZM, Event Manager for the Art Deco Trust.
With decades of experience in event planning, Jonathan has a proven system for a complex, multi-faceted, multi-day festival.
“The first thing to lock in is the infrastructure,” Jonathan says. “We have to determine how we’re going to close the city off and look at which venues are available to use. We do that part very quickly, because then we’ve created a platform that we can build the events on top of.
“Once we’ve planned the road closures, the port-a-loos, the water stations and all that infrastructure, we’ve organised the event programme, and then we have to execute everything that we’ve said we’ll do! The fun part is designing each event, making a creative brief and deciding on the entertainment. Traffic management plans and port-a-loos, a bit less so.”
The Gatsby Picnic is a festival highlight.
There are no other arts festivals in New Zealand quite like the Art Deco Festival. Spread over a large area, from the heart of Napier to its outskirts, the festival is completely deco-inspired.
“My goal as event manager is for people to have a full deco immersion,” Jonathan says. “Arriving at one of the entry points to the Napier CBD you’re basically walking onto a Hollywood movie set, but you’re part of the cast. You can really feel like you’re part of the experience.”
Matthew Bonnett, the Art Deco Trust’s Marketing Manager agrees that the festival creates the perfect atmosphere for cultural escapism. “That post-WWI, Jazz Age era of excess makes for a great party,” he says. “But there’s also more to it than that. The festival is a wonderful celebration of our built heritage. It is also a commemoration: it’s an acknowledgement of all the people who rolled up their sleeves in the aftermath of that quake to rebuild their city.”
Aerial displays are a key part of the Napier Art Deco Festival. Photo by Michael Schultz
From the 1931 earthquake to more recent weather events, the city of Napier has faced many challenges.
“Cyclone Gabrielle hit Napier just days before the 2023 festival,” Matthew says. “We were obviously watching the weather very carefully. There was every indication that it would be clear for the festival period – and indeed it was – but the problem was the devastation in the wake of the cyclone. There was no way we could go ahead. We had no power; we couldn’t get comms out. The city almost became an island again with all the bridges washed out.
“There was a lot of paperwork in wrapping up that festival. We had to hand-write a letter about the festival cancellation and took it to the council where there were generators running. They got the letter out and it ended up going viral.”
The Napier Art Deco Festival brings large numbers of visitors to the Hawke's Bay region.
Weather contingencies are just one of many considerations for the festival organisers. Another factor is visitor numbers.
“On top of local and visiting attendees, this year we have two cruise ships arriving in Napier on the Sunday of the festival with 7,000 passengers,” Jonathan says. “It’s exciting because it creates a real buzz, but when these people get off the ship they don’t necessarily know it’s Art Deco weekend. The first thing they ask is ‘is this how you normally live your life here?’ This year we’re trying to communicate with those cruise passengers before they arrive so they can also be more immersed in the experience.”
From the first event, the opening soiree on the Thursday night, through to the festival’s conclusion on Sunday evening ‘the beast’ is about to be unleashed. “It’s like I turn on a switch, and I release the rollercoaster of the festival,” Jonathan says. “It just goes: up and down – I can’t stop it, all I can do is keep it on the rails.”
This story is from the Autumn 2026 issue of AA Directions magazine.
