As we well know, the late springtime of November is the most beautiful time of year in Hawke’s Bay. The month follows the fun of the Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival, the HB regional anniversary and the first opportunities to frock up in new summery dresses.
November events of Hawke’s Bay are encouraging people to visit the Bay and are selling out fast, reflecting the desire for huge numbers of visitors to break out of the tiresome Covid restrictions, to live and eat well for a few days away.
On August 4, when ticket bookings opened for the tenth Cranford Hospice Holly Trail, the event was sold out within an hour. Holly Hospice runs from 12-14 November.
During the same week (11-15 November) the seventh Wildflower Sculpture Exhibition is also open to the public. The bi-annual WSE at the Round Pond Garden south of Hastings is the garden event that always brings out the crowds and sells sculpture like few other events in the New Zealand arts calendar – with proceeds also going to Cranford. For information or to buy your tickets for the WSE opening event go to www.wildflowersculpture.com or at the gate for the rest of the week.
On Monday, the pre-sale ticket platform opened for the F.A.W.C! 2020 Summer Series (November 6-15) and is already breaking records with at least 13 events sold out within six hours. The organisers report that more than 1,200 tickets across a range of events were sold, making this year’s pre-sale the most successful of the last three years.
However, don’t despair. With more than 60 events in this year’s calendar, there is still plenty of opportunity for F.A.W.C!ers to experience their own slice of food and wine country. “We are very fortunate to have such a wealth of talented chefs, foodies, artisan producers and winemakers here in Hawke’s Bay and F.A.W.C! makes that very clear to everyone,” says Hawke’s Bay Tourism chief executive Hamish Saxton.
He says the response shows the very real desire of Hawke’s Bay locals and New Zealanders everywhere to experience this region’s wonderful food, wine and lifestyle offerings.
The F.A.W.C! Summer Series is in its ninth year. The programme and ticket sales can be found at www.fawc.co.nz.