MARK STORY
The Hawke's Bay Showgrounds this morning boasted more tents than a Coromandel camping ground at New Year as organisers put the finishing touches to the site of the 2008 Takitimu Festival.
Five stages, grand marquees and hundreds of tents lined Waikoko Gardens. The sunny landscape was poised for the estimated
20,000 visitors and 1500 descendants of the Takitimu canoe crew who will attend the five-day cultural extravaganza.
Tradesmen, contractors, decorators, landscapers and even a flag expert from Auckland were scrambling to complete the picture.
A dedicated few had worked through the night to decorate the main stages with flax weaving.
Festival executive director Tama Huata said everything under organisers' control, was under control.
"The weather? Well, that could be another story, but it'll do what it does and it's pointless to worry about that," he said.
The logistics of bringing together eight iwi and three Pacific nations had not fazed him.
"It's been a mad rush. Local marae are full to the brim with visitors needing beds, and then there's everything else from arranging the corporate tent, right down to making sure we have enough port-a-loos on site. Everyone's done a great job."
Royalty and other dignitaries from the Pacific Islands will join Maori King Tuheitia Paki at the festival, which began with today's mid-morning powhiri.
