"Best Ever" Kilbirnie Festival sets new record

12 March 2007

Last Sunday's 11th annual Kilbirnie festival, held in Kilbirnie's Bay Road and surrounding areas, set new records for attendance at the event.

Festival manager Martin Wilson rates it as the "best ever" Kilbirnie Festival. He says:

"Attendance was excellent. People stayed longer than in the past, as the entertainment and activities, combined with the successful site lay-out, provided a real day's outing for all the family.

"The Festival runs between 10am - 4pm, and right up until 4pm there were crowds enjoying themselves in the activities and food areas, and at each of the three stages. The weather played its part, with brilliant skies and hot temperatures.

"We have had counts exceeding 20,000 in the past. While we had no official counters this year, the crowds came earlier, and stayed much longer, and with a bigger site having good crowds throughout, the numbers will have easily been in excess of 25,000.

"This event is a great chance for the community to come together and enjoy the sites, sounds and even smells of our diverse neighbourhood. And they did, in large numbers! The event is also an excellent regional promotion for Kilbirnie's retail sector, giving people from all over the Wellington region attending the event the opportunity to experience the wide range of services and facilities in Kilbirnie, all with free parking."

The music was a highlight of the event. The San Francisco Bathhouse Stage had consistently strong audiences all day, and was worthy of it, with a selection of the best performers from this award-winning original music venue's mid-week Acoustic Lounge evenings, demonstrating why Wellington is worthy of its reputation as the arts capital.

The School of Rock Stage showcased bands aged 7-17, and their diligent attention to their musical studies were apparent in their professional and polished performances. The sound engineer, 15-year-old Ashok Fernandez, handled the sound system with expertise while band after band wowed the enthusiastic crowds with their original songs.

The Community Stage offered a wide variety of styles, from Wgtn's own excellent jug band the Tobey Jugs, through to the enigmatic Sam Manzanza's colourful Rhythm Africa Band with a full percussion section. MC and musical poet Russell Self added a set of his tasteful slide guitar and tasty lyrics, and The California Dreamers, complete with 60s costumes, helped the audience relive the era often described as having the best music of the modern generation.

Hip-hop dance groups Controlled Chaos, TeknoFunk, and Virtue all showed that hip-hop dance is still where its at, with large audience attendance and approval.

Display and craft stalls once again entirely filled Bay Rd, offering everything from genealogy and vintage engines to driftwood garden art and inflatable toys. The variety of food offered from the many food stalls encompassed many cultures and palates, including Greek, Thai, Indian, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and plenty of the good old fair standards. Many people seemed to find searching amongst the approximately 200 stalls to be the best entertainment in itself!

Wilson says, "As one of Wellington's longest-standing community festivals, the Kilbirnie Festival is improving with age, offering more, and a wider range, of great activities and entertainment for everyone. And with crowds like that attending, the public obviously agree."

ENDS

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