What started as a small arts event in Nelson, (top of the South Island) as a rural art gallery promotion, WOW has grown to an annual extravaganza in our capital city, entertaining around 35,000 punters over a ten show run every September.
I describe it as Cirque du Soleil with Fab Frocks - it's a fantastic mix of theatre, dance, art, fashion, music and spectacle. We (nearly) had front row seats. We were just behind the VIP catered 3-course dinner tables of ten, but we had our own boxed dinner, catered by Ruth Pretty - small Lindauer bubbly, Waiwera mineral water, chicken club sams, smoked salmon blini, olives, chilli toffee smoked almonds, and a florentine for dessert. Yum.
One highlight, for me anyway, was about an hour into the show, the table of VIPs in front of us had a 'furniture malfunction' where their foldaway circular table with china, cutlery, bottles of wine, and glasses suddenly folded away - all by itself, and tilted to about 45 degrees, sliding all of the above to the ground with an almighty crashy/smashy noise and mini tsunami of wine salad. Luckily for our VIPs, they had turned their seats to watch the show, so nobody ended up lap dancing a dinner setting.
Almost immediately a clean-up crew appeared with little flashlights and whisked away the evidence in minutes.
Meanwhile, The Show went on without a hitch.
The Show itself, was a seamless and totally professional production, choreographed with precision and panache. A dazzling spectacle of whimsical wearable creations, made from almost any imaginable material.
You really had to be there. Two hours went by in a flash, and we exited well-fed, happy and suitably WOWed, vowing to return next year.
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