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No winging over Wairarapa BY GERALD FORD
Wings event manager Jenny Gasson puts on a brave face in the empty control room as tired sta˜ and volunteers were taking a quick late lunch break during the cleanup on Sunday afternoon. PHOTO/GERALD FORD
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Wings over Wairarapa event manager Jenny Gasson had a rough day on Sunday. It started soon after 7am with “making a difficult decision” to finally cancel the Wings Over Wairarapa airshow – then there were all the phone calls, and then there was the cleaning up from an event that never happened. “The rain has made the site unsafe, and we had thunderstorms and hail forecast this (Sunday) morning, Ms Gasson said. “The first thing was contacting everybody — the transport, the trains, the buses, emergency services, trade sites, everybody doing catering.” Then came a “massive clean-up ... and the rain has made it five times harder”. The job also required “keeping everybody’s spirits up, because everybody’s been a bit down.” What did help was a massive amount of moral support from everyone invloved. “Things have been amazing, everybody has been supportive,’ she said. Messages of support and commiseration had poured in nationally, all about the country, and internationally. “We’ve had offers of people, offering to not refund tickets,” Ms Gasson said.
While the rain forecast on Sunday morning did not eventuate, the ground conditions were still soggy and mud covered the routes to parking areas and other sites such as the military display at the northern end of the airfield. Wings Over Wairarapa Chair Bob Francis said the cancellation was “devastating … and more for the staff than anything”. Mr Francis said organisers were working with their insurance broker in Wellington and their underwriter in London to work through the insurance cover purchased a few weeks out from the event. He would expect this process to be completed within the next week or two. UK-based Festival commentator and member of the Flying Safety team Trevor Graham said he felt for the organisers. “In nearly 38 years of experience in international airshows and working at 2000 events, this is the first one I’ve been working at that has been completely cancelled. My thoughts are going to out to the volunteers and organisers, who in my opinion, work hard to put on the best medium-sized airshow in the world.”
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