By Don Farmer
Good news for aviation enthusiasts this week with the revelation a crack British glider team will be a special feature at Wings Over Wairarapa in February.
AeroSPARX will be bringing their Grob109b gliders to Hood Aerodrome to put on a display sure to be an entirely unique experience for Wairarapa watchers.
It will include spectacular wing-tip pyrotechnic displays, a speciality of the team leader Guy Westgate.
Apart from the sheer spectacle the team is certain to produce the inclusion of the glider team is important for another reason.
It shows the organisers of Wings Over Wairarapa realise a truth which is not always picked up by those who organiser year-on-year events.
That truth is that no matter how wonderful a festival is it must be freshened up to maintain its pulling power with the public.
The base attraction has always to remain of course but people will shy away from spending good money to attend a festival of any type which more or less is the same as the one they went to the previous year.
Whether it be a wine festival, a food and wine festival or a country fair its attraction will dim and probably fade away almost entirely unless organisers show some initiative in giving it a fresh look.
Wings Over Wairarapa has managed to do so on each and every occasion and for that reason the crowds who attend the event return time and again.
This is the start of what is traditionally the best months in Wairarapa with a host of great days out ahead over summer and autumn.
Apart from Wings we have events such as the Mauriceville Fair to be held tomorrow week in the spectacular Clarke Memorial Domain and the Wairarapa Wines Festival at the equally impressive venue at the Cliffs, East Taratahi which is scheduled for March.
Given good weather over the coming months there is no reason to believe anything other than Wairarapa will be abuzz with visitors, here to enjoy themselves and to spend money.
The latter is important as what is spent here ensures the success of our business community and the roll-on effect of that is the ability to organise and stage yet more in the way of great attractions.
