9 September 2013

MEDIA RELEASE

Youth choirs add sweet notes to Blossom Festival

Six local secondary school choirs will be providing free lunch time concerts as part of Hastings Blossom festivities that also includes art and garden events, and an inner city blossom breakfast.

St Matthew’s Church in King Street South will be open to all for 45 minute concerts each day starting at 12.15pm. Schools providing songsters are Hastings Girls’ High School, Hastings Boys’ High School, Karamu High School, Iona College Lindisfarne College and Woodford House.

The Bay Chimers and Choralaires are also part of the free lunch time concert programme on Tuesday (10), with the 16 male chimers performing music with their unique instruments before the 22-strong choral group made up of former soloists entertain.

St Matthew’s has been part of the Blossom Festival for as long as anyone can remember, says Martina Dinsdale, a member of the church’s events committee. “We are very fortunate to have such a beautiful old church with great acoustics, a grand piano, wonderful organ and the alter area that makes a natural stage. 

“We feel that it is important that our church is not only used on a Sunday and left empty for the rest of the week.  We love to share it with the community.”

The choral festivities started on Friday 6 September and the Hastings Music Society held a concert on Sunday 8. The Hastings Choral Society, which is performing a programme of music by Benjamin Britten, will be the final act on Sunday 15 at 2pm with $2 door sales available.

A visual celebration of the Blossom Festival will be playing continuously at the Hastings Library, with photos from the 1950s to recent times displayed on a large screen television.

Art exhibitions at the Hastings Community Art Centre and Hastings City Art Gallery (HCAG) are also on show at no charge. Out of Interest III at the Arts Centre in Russell Street, is a diverse mix of works from local artists including glass, furniture, prints, fine wood sculpture drawings, paintings, pottery Maori art, and jewellery.

David Trubridge’s survey show So Far, Sideshow based on the Hawke’s Bay A& P Show, and Phil Belcher’s E kata te Rakau are all on display at the HCAG.

Gwavas Gardens and Homestead will be on show with a special bus tour on Sunday 15 September that has three pick up points in Hastings and Taradale.

Parade day on Saturday 14 kicks off with a blossom breakfast hosted by Hastings City Business Association. From 9am to 11.30am, a gold coin donation will buy pancakes and bacon, with all monies going to the Leukaemia Foundation. Bands, musicians, magicians and face painters will add a festive theme to the streets as an entree to the Blossom Parade that starts at 1.30pm.

The day after, a new Blossom Ride event has been added to the festival, with organisers planning to make it a permanent fixture in future years. Proceeds from this year’s Ride will be used to plant more blossom trees along the limestone cycle ways that wend their way through the Hastings district Fruitbowl. A concert at the HB Opera House by The Kawekas from 1pm to 4pm rounds out the event.

Blossom Ride tickets are $20 and include a barista coffee along the ride, and can be purchased at Creative Hastings or Hasting I-site both in Russell Street.

ENDS

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