The Riverside Shindig pulled in the crowds on Sunday.
Photo / Lewis Gardner
The Riverside Shindig pulled in the crowds on Sunday.
Photo / Lewis Gardner
Whanganui's Vintage Weekend looks to be going from strength to strength with another Wellington Anniversary weekend full of activities that entertained the masses.
The four-day event kicked off on Friday with the popular showing of vintage rides by the Wanganui Vintage Car Club.
The Vintage Social on Friday was anew addition to this year's programme and was received well.
Vintage Weekend featured a range of music from decades such as the 1970's to the 1940's.
Photo / Lewis Gardner
Event manager Heather Cox said it was the perfect was to start the run of events.
"We always have a welcome event which is shared with the vintage car club because they're key to the establishment of Vintage Weekend in 2012, but this is the first year where there's been a large event open to the public where everyone can enjoy.
"[The social] was sold out and had people of all ages and all fashion just dancing and enjoying themselves to the vintage theme.
"It was a great start and was something that other people mentioned over the weekend about how great it was to start with such a bang."
Vintage cars are always popular at the annual event.
Photo / Lewis Gardner
Some of the events that featured on Saturday included the Mainstreet Caboodle, a vintage art exhibition, a vintage ball and a solo performance by Jon Toogood.
For this year's event the Billy Webb challenge was fully incorporated into the Sunday morning programme which was a great move according to Cox.
"Rather than having a delayed start around events, things kicked off with that amazing spectacle with over 45 boats on the river and over 100 individual participants," she said.
"That gave people something straight away, brought them down to the river bank and then they stayed on and took part in the shindig."
Music at Sunday's shindig had people of all ages dancing.
Photo / Lewis Gardner
The vintage theme of the Riverside Shindig for this year was the 1970s, which gave attendees an idea of what music to expect and what type of clothing to wear if they chose to dress up.
"What we're really trying to promote is that Vintage Weekend celebrates the best of every era from the past," Cox said.
"People commonly think the 1930s and 1940s but in Whanganui we're different and we celebrate all things different from every era."
Cox estimated the turnout of people coming and going between the Billy Webb rowing event and the Riverside Shindig to be around 5000 people.
Several bands played songs from the 1970's while food trucks kept those in attendance fed.
Photo / Lewis Gardner
Some of the vintage cars that were being showcased.
Photo / Lewis Gardner
Whanganui Vintage Weekend Trust chairman Bruce Jellyman said he was pleased to see the event once again add vibrancy to Whanganui.
"People are coming from further afield in New Zealand to come to the event, and we're starting to see some crossover into Auckland which is really amazing.
"If you go back not too many years, everyone used to leave Whanganui for the long weekend but now we're getting it back the other way where people are staying in Whanganui.
"To get the Whanganui public on board with that has probably been our biggest win."
With the countdown now on for next year's event, Cox said it's likely Vintage Weekend will be larger and have more events and activities on offer.
