Weekend of Concerts delight thousands at Church Road Winery

Church Road Winery was abuzz with the sounds of International stars this weekend.

Thousands of concert-goers flocked to the venue for UB40, featuring Ali Campbell and Astro on Friday night, with some returning for a slightly up-tempo Fat Boy Slim.

Neptune Entertainment director Toby Burrows said about 7000 people attended the concert.

Hawke's Bay market is one of the better-selling market's across all the shows they promoted, Burrows said.

He said Hawke's Bay is "receiving all the artists that have been brought through really well".

"Obviously it is awesome bringing one of the greatest bands ever to Hawke's Bay. UB40 love the region and they love the Church Road venue," Burrows said.

"There is something about the people of Hawke's Bay as well, they have an affinity with UB40. They've done a few shows there and had some success and they come out and support it."

Following on from their first show at the venue with "A Summer's Day - Toto, Dragon and Jefferson Starship" on January 10, Burrows believed it had gone smoothly.

"I think we have got a good formula now for future events." He particularly enjoyed seeing how many children came with their families.

On Saturday, Fatboy Slim performed a sold-out gig, promoted by Endeavour Live, to 5000 fans.

The UK producer and musician, also known as Norman Cook, showed the crowd just how to Eat, Sleep, Rave, Repeat, with his mind and genre-bending multi-visual effects and stage presence.

Promoter, Hamish Pinkham said it was well-received, with people "blown away by the magic of Fatboy Slim and the intensity and scale of the performance".

"There's been a lot of anticipation for the show. Everyone was super happy and jovial from the start. The production was on another level of things we've seen in the region, I think," Pinkham said.

He said Norman was complimentary of the crowd and venue. "It is a great leading venue to play at in the country, so we should feel very lucky that we've got it."

Emergency services said the crowd was generally well-behaved over the two-nights.

On Friday, three arrests were made for assault, fighting in a public place and disorderly behaviour and there were no arrests on Saturday, a police spokeswoman said.

St Johns Ambulance transported four people on Friday, and two the day after to Hawke's Bay Hospital.