Whakatane will be alive and kicking this weekend as the Berry Festival takes over the streets.
The Strand (pictured) will be closed to traffic from the Whakatane Hotel to the Richardson St roundabout on Saturday as stallholders, buskers and other forms of entertainment line the streets, ready to cater tolarge crowds of locals and holidaymakers.
Event organiser Des Frost said there would be entertainment for children and young adults - and for the older adults too.
"There will be marketers, entertainment and buskers, there will be sideshows and rides, and a bouncy castle for the children. There will be all sorts of market stalls from all over the North Island, people are coming from everywhere, it's going to be a huge market."
The 2013 Miss Berry Queen will also be crowned at 2pm as part of the festivities. Mr Frost said five contestants were in the running for the crown.
This year is the fifth year the festival has been held. Mr Frost said the festival had proved to be popular in the past and was expecting this year's festival to be just as successful.
At last year's event, Mr Frost said The Strand was "wall to wall" with people at midday and there had been crowds throughout the day.
The Berry Festival runs from 9am to 2.30pm on Saturday at The Strand, Whakatane.
Head down to Detour Bar and Lounge on Saturday night to hear former New Zealand's Got Talent semifinalist Coral on stage.
Coral is a 19-year-old singer who began performing as a child and became a professional musician five years ago as part of her family band.
Coral will be on stage from 8pm.
Surf's up
Summer is here and the surf is up.
As part of the Summer Arts Festival Surfing USSR will feature at the Whakatane Surf Club at Ohope Beach on Saturday night.
Surfing USSR draw upon a diverse range of musical genres in their interpretation of eastern European melodies, klezmer tunes, surf music and Bond tunes.
The performance begins at 7.30pm on Saturday. Tickets are available from The Good Life and are $20, door sales will be $25. Touch tournament
If a tournament has been running for 28 years then it's fair to say it's a pretty successful event.
Touch Tournament will blow at 10.30am on Saturday morning to signal the commencement of play. This year 70 teams will vie for honours including the crowd-drawing BaaBaaz who always bring at least one or two current or former All Blacks and giveaways for the crowds.
