Lance Simon was an observer of the 1960 Blossom Festival riot from start to finish. Photo / Supplied
Michael Fowler's April 9 article about the Hastings Blossom Festivals brought back some eye-witness memories for Lance Simon, a long-term resident of Hawke's Bay.
The 1960 festival riot is long considered to have been started by drunken youths, who had travelled north on festival trains.
They apparently became unruly after drinking at the Albert Hotel all day while the festival was delayed.
Simon recalls police were over-zealous, and firefighters had a part to play as well.
Here, he outlines what he believes to be the real reason the riot started.
The 1960 so-called "Blossom Festival Riot" (also called "Battle of Hastings", as a play on the 1066 English event) occurred when street fights and damage took place after a rain-affected festival.
Blame was put on young offenders, many believed to have come from out of the area via the Blossom Festival excursion trains from down south.
What Mr Fowler's article refers to is the "official" record of what happened.
I was an observer of this whole "riot" from start to finish.
Anyone who was present will totally agree with me that the "riot" was not caused by "youths" but by the over-reaction of a senior policeman with a lot of braid on his uniform who was in control of the police presence.
In the late Fifties, early Sixties, some youths were finding the old order very oppressive. They began to wear different clothes, grew their hair longer, liked different music and rode motorbikes, simply because cars were very expensive at that time.
Adults who had gone through the Depression and war years viewed these youth as louts, troublemakers and good-for-nothing people.
Groups of them were referred to as Bodgies (male) and Widgies (female).
They used to hang out at a milk bar/coffee bar in Heretaunga Street West.
Older people were terrified to walk past this coffee bar and would cross to the other side of the road.
These Bodgies had some really good motorcycles which they took great pride in maintaining.
Although I was only a youngster I recall one Friday night my mate and I decided we would go into the coffee bar and see what happened, fully expecting to get a kick up the backside.
Nothing happened, we got a milkshake and went outside to look at the motorcycles.
We were told it was OK to look but not to touch, which was fair enough.
From time to time groups of young farmers would come to town to clean those Bodgies and Widgies out of town.
Often the young farmers left battered and bruised.
So in 1960 we had the establishment dead against those youth and their preferred lifestyle.
The Bodgies and Widgies, when left alone, did not seem to cause any trouble.
Then came the 1960 Blossom Festival.
Unfortunately the weather was not good - rain then sunshine then more rain.
The Blossom Festival organisers were in a quandary over whether they should cancel the parade. One minute it was on, the next it was off etc.
Many of the floats had taken many hours to put together.
The parade, after quite a few hours of delay, was eventually cancelled.
In the meantime thousands of spectators had lined the route of the parade waiting for the parade.
A group of participants decided they would form an unofficial parade, so the 1960 "Blossom Festival parade " started.
The parade finished at the corner of Karamu Rd and Heretaunga St.
A large group of youths had been waiting outside the Albert Hotel for hours, and had been frequenting the hotel.
As the parade was hours late this group of young people had become fairly intoxicated. Yes, they were noisy but they were not causing any trouble to the thousands of people who had gathered to see the parade.
The shortened parade passed with no incident. Immediately behind the last float two lines of police marched, which usually happened as part of the parade anyway.
As the last float headed off down Karamu Rd North the police contingent stopped in Heretaunga Street a short distance from the intersection.
A senior police officer with, as I said earlier, lots of braid on his uniform stood behind the two rows of policemen.
This policeman produced a loud hailer and told the crowd to disperse as the parade was over.
No one moved as everyone then realised the police were there to deal to this group of intoxicated youths.
This request to disperse was repeated a number of times but very few people moved.
Then a fire engine, lights and siren on, proceeded from Karamu Road North to Karamu Road South stopping a short distance past the Albert Hotel. Hoses were run out etc, and everyone thought there must have been a fire inside the Albert.
The police commander then stated that anyone who did not leave could be arrested, so a few more started to leave.
Then it happened.
A young woman with a pram with a baby in it started to walk across the Heretaunga Street / Karamu Road intersection on the north side of Heretaunga Street just as the firemen turned on a high-volume, high-pressure water fire hose which directly hit this woman and the pram, knocking them both over.
Many of the present crowd were horrified, and the group of youths began pelting the firemen and fire appliance with beer bottles, firemen were going down injured and the fire appliance was being hit.
Then the police, batons drawn, charged down the street towards the Albert, battening anyone within reach.
The firemen took shelter in front of the fire truck, then jumped in the fire truck and drove off with a hose dragging behind them.
The group of youths fled in all directions, many going into the Albert's front door and disappearing out the back and over the back wall.
Who caused the riot?
If the police had simply turned around at the end of the parade and gone back to their station there would not have been a "riot". Innocent bystanders would not have been injured trying to evacuate the area as the police charged down the street.
Weeks later the Fire Service said that their personnel would never again be used for crowd control purposes, and if the police wanted to use a fire appliance for crowd control they would have to man it and be responsible for any damage to their equipment.
After all these years, the record of what actually happened needs to be corrected and the true facts established once and for all.
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