Organisers of the annual Arrowtown Autumn Festival are excited for this year's festivities as they put the last pieces into place for a week and a-half of events among the seasonal colours.
The jam-packed schedule starts at 7.30pm tonight with the festival art exhibition opening at the Lakes District Museum. More than $4000 in prize money is up for grabs and all exhibited works are for sale.
A plethora of events to tempt all tastes continues for the next nine days, including musicals, dinner evenings, sport and comedy events, and dozens more. Arrowtown will be a hive of autumnal activity this weekend in particular, with 14 events taking place tomorrow, starting with a vintage car display from 9.30am.
"The forecast is looking really good for the street parade and the market on Saturday, which is the longest day and the highlight of the festival, so we are getting excited," organiser Deborah Husheer said.
A further 10 events take place on Sunday, beginning at 9.30am with a mind, body and soul expo and concluding with New Zealand comedienne Penny Ashton's risque musical review, Hot Pink Bits.
Returning due to popular demand is the Art 2 Wear wearable arts show next Friday, which sold out within a week of the tickets being released, and then the dress rehearsal sold out, too.
New to the programme this year is an Arts on Tour NZ musical production, Songs My Mother Taught Me, about a 1970s youth determined to escape her sheltered and privileged upbringing by moving to Christchurch to study, and an "old-fashioned"community picnic, which was to debut last year but was rained out.
Ms Husheer said in addition to all the usual family entertainment, the picnic would feature a "trading post" for people to barter home-grown fruit and vegetables, jams, preserves, and cakes.
Also included is the latest presentation from the Arrowtown Entertainers: a Dave Dustan-written, Kate Blackhurst-directed musical called Cribbies, about families who came on holiday in the area in the '50s, for which attendees are encouraged to come dressed in '50s finery and "party like it's 1959".
