My Account
Former festival director and current committee member Dave Parker recalls the beginnings and history of New Zealand’s second longest running annual community festival …
It all began 50 years ago when Jack Keys and Phil Wilson were working in Kowhai Park. The tui were singing, almost deafening and the kowhai was in full bloom, providing a spectacular sight. Phil was recorded as saying, “Isn’t this a beautiful combination, the tui and the kowhai? Warkworth should be known as the kowhai town.”
Jack Keys thought that was an excellent idea and later suggested to Jim Ferguson, who was president of the Rotary Club at the time, that they should adopt the name and have a festival to celebrate. Mr Ferguson put the festival idea to the combined service clubs of Warkworth, which included Rotary, Jaycees and the Lions Club. They embraced the idea and appointed an executive committee to organise the festival in 1970. Those who served on that first executive, representing the three service clubs, were Ken Fearnley (chairman), Jack Keys (honorary secretary), Tony Anich, Jim Ferguson, Neil Forsyth, Hedley King, Stuart Neal, Brian Rees and Geoff Roper. Today, only Ken, Brian and Geoff survive.
For the first four years, the festival ran without any real commitment to make it an annual event. Having been co-opted onto the committee in 1970, I was put in charge of running the first float parade. I can recall the discussions that were held over whether or not we should have an annual or biennial event. It was Neil Sole, a local businessman, who moved that the festival should be held each year in September when the kowhai was in full bloom. In 1976, the festival organisation was streamlined with the formation of the Warkworth Kowhai Festival Society.
That first festival was a resounding success and some of the original events are still going today. These events included the Floral Festival, Warkworth Brass concert, sports events, photographic exhibitions, combined service clubs evening, combined churches celebration, market/Huge Day Out, river events and the official opening of the Warkworth Tennis and Squash Club pavilion.
From my perspective, I have fond memories of so many festival events of the past. For instance, the float parades where we travelled down Neville Street, Queen Street, into Elizabeth Street and out on to the Hill Street/State Highway One intersection in order to turn and return into town! We did that for the first few years. Some of parades featured the local Rodeo Club riders. Horses and riders would break from the parade and head into the public bar and following a bit of liquid refreshment, would rejoin the parade. The horses even had their own beer troughs! We had can-can dancers perform on the balcony of the Warkworth Inn on various occasions, and Champagne breakfasts were always popular in the Silver Service Restaurant of the Inn. Then there were the night parades, when coloured lights once festooned the town streets and Lady Godiva would appear on a black horse wearing almost nothing but long blonde hair almost touching the road. When the parade returned to a daylight event, stalls had to be cleared away from the street by mid-afternoon so the parade could proceed.
We always had so much fun on the river with the annual Raft Race, a feature attracting great numbers of very competitive and creative structures, which did not always finish their race.
Canoes introduced
From 1991, there has always been an annual Canoe Showdown featuring kayakers from various clubs around the country, including a number of national and Olympic competitors. The event, which was always organised by our own Jim and Judy Sonerson, crowned the winners, the ‘king and queen’ of the Mahurangi River, with a head lei of mangrove leaves!
I can recall the time when we decided, as a fundraiser, to have a Chuck-A-Duck race on the river.
There was instant opposition from a public organisation to the idea as protestors thought we were going to be throwing real ducks! Each year we would sell some 100 plastic ducks, which raised good money for various causes. Many of the ducks had names such as Daffy, Daisy, Dilly, Dipsey and so on.
The former local search and rescue organised the first race, then the Kawau Coastguard and so on.
There have been numerous and quite novel themes each year, all of which have afforded the opportunity to dress in appropriate attire from carnival, nautical, country & western to pirates, cowboys and Halloween. As special guests, we would invite various VIPs and Olympic sportspeople over the years to attend the festival. I recall in 1984 we had the late Sir Dove-Meyer Robinson, former Mayor of Auckland, who arrived all dressed in full cowboy attire as it was the theme. It was the year he was promoting a rapid rail system, so the local Boys’ Brigade thought it a good idea to feature a large ‘rapid snail’ in the float parade and took the prize. Another novel event was the race for the fastest live snail on earth.
Participation by numerous local sports bodies has always been a feature with festival golf, bowls, croquet, tennis and squash events being held. Golden Oldie support was strong. Youth organisations and schools have also always taken an active and varied part in the annual event. The festival has afforded the opportunity for numerous community organisations to promote or display their talent. Local arts, crafts and floral groups have always supported the festival concept indicating strong community input.
District-wide
We have always tried to include our outlying districts in one way or another. Early in the piece, we promoted a Sir George Grey Day at Mansion House on Kawau Island and that has, in more recent years, turned into an annual festive day during the summer months. Craft and village days were held in various local halls. There was even a Scarecrow Fest out at Sheepworld for a whole month. So many events have taken place, but if it wasn’t for the volunteering effort of our local service clubs – Rotary, Lions, Jaycees and the Kowhai Coast Lions – many of these would not have happened.
What was the Annual Market Day or Festival Day is now the Huge Day Out, currently attracting around 20,000 visitors and offering an amazing array of talent, music and attraction. I can only recall one actual day in 1989 when we had to cancel the day due to heavy rain. There have been numerous other days when it poured down before the start, was fine in between then, as soon as the float parade concluded, down it came again. Two marching bands have added much joy, colour and music. Both the Warkworth & Wellsford Pipe Band and the Guggenmusik bands have proved extremely popular over the years and will again be a feature this year. Warkworth has always been a township of ducks who used to make their way up Neville Street in military order to eat the fallen acorns. They were so popular that the Festival Committee decided it would create and hatch its own duck that could be used for promotional and children’s events. So out of an ‘egg’ one market day popped ‘Waddles’ and he will again lead this year’s new Walking Parade as Warkworth’s mascot. Moving the festival from September to October has been a good move.
This annual festival has always been Warkworth’s opportunity to display both its wealth of talent and its community spirit. There has been no other local event that has drawn so many visitors over the years nor so much support and benefit to the community.
Loyal sponsors
Its success really has been attributable to all the sponsors and thousands of local volunteers who, over the past 50 years, have contributed their time, energy and enthusiasm as committee members and ambassadors. Individually they have served, in my opinion, with distinction. I have been privileged to have been associated, one way or another, with the organisation over a good number of years. The Warkworth Kowhai Festival has always been a happy, fun-filled, family event. I believe the festival is in good hands, and I have no doubt that it will continue to be an event that the community can be proud of and indeed should continue to support.
Photo Credits: The Camera Shop Warkworth, Don Worsnop Collection, Warkworth Museum.
