The Spring Classic race meeting is much more than a horse racing meeting. It's a major public event, as crowds showed last year queuing to get into a licensed area. Photo / File
The Spring Classic race meeting is much more than a horse racing meeting. It's a major public event, as crowds showed last year queuing to get into a licensed area. Photo / File
The four-week postponement of the election has put the triennial vote for members of Parliament into a week of major events in Hawke's Bay.
The October 17 polling date announced on Monday by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is the same day as Hawke's Bay's biggest annual horse-racing event, the Livamol Classic, in Hastings.
Events in the week before polling day include the Bayleys Hawke's Bay Wine awards on October 14, the Napier Port Hawke's Bay Primary Sector awards the following night, and a Mitre 10 national championship rugby match between the Hawke's Bay Magpies and Northland at McLean Park, Napier, on the eve of the big vote.
The Hawke's Bay A and P Show will be held on the following Thursday and Hawke's Bay Anniversary public-holiday Friday of October 22-23.
All are subject to Covid-19 alert-level restrictions, and could be held with restricted public access or cancelled, depending on what level may apply at the time.
The A and P Show, which has a history dating back 157 years, could turn into a series of near competitor-only simultaneous shows as organisers consider the possibility of competitor-only events, with classes separated in different areas of the spacious Showgrounds Hawke's Bay Tomoana.
As entries for the competitive classes opened on Monday, society general manager Sally Jackson said there is a "Plan C" to consider if it is possible to have the segregation to keep alive some of the tradition of the show, with the current level 2 alert limiting gatherings to no more than 100 people.
Part of the Hawke's Bay Show tradition - the parade at the 150th celebration in 2013. Photo / File
She said it would mean having to have strict measures in place, including extra staff and security, to confine each area and restrict movement from one area to another.
"We think it can be done," she said, but reiterated a lot of planning needs to be done, with the focus first on the safety of all involved, still including cancellation if there is no other option.
"What we wouldn't want to do is put the public, ourselves, the businesses and our other supporters at risk," she said.
Five months ago the show society began working on options depending on the pandemic status at the time of the show, and decided that this year it would drop the Royal Show status it has had since 2015 and opt for a more-local traditional Hawke's Bay A and P Show.
The two awards functions run by the A and P society the previous week are expected to go ahead, even if mainly by live-streaming.
Meanwhile, new Hawke's Bay Racing chief executive Darin Balcombe says "pre-sales" for the race meeting, the third and final day of the Hawke's Bay Spring Racing Carnival of internationally rated Group 1 features, are such that a big crowd is expected.
There are, however, no plans to have polling booths at the races, just as there weren't for the opening day of the carnival, which coincided with the original election date of September 19, a date which also includes the Hawke's Bay Marathon.
