A new approach to the Victorian Fete this year, means it will be free to attend and centred more around “entertainment, fun and music”.

The Sunday fete, organised by the Ōamaru Whitestone Civic Trust, is a separate entity from the Heritage Celebrations, but remains one of the week’s highlights, as the festivities draw to a close.

Civic Trust chairperson Richard Vinbrux said the fete no longer works as a fundraiser, and with the trust celebrating its 35 year anniversary, they had an opportunity to try something new.

“This is also down to costs increasing, you know, I'm not sure what the road safety plan this year would have cost, but . . . we paid a lot for road safety last year.

“So this year we, and it's kind of the combined idea, we do a celebration and we try something different.” 

The decision has been made to condense the day’s attractions to Harbour St, which is already closed to traffic at weekends, and not expand onto Tyne St.

The stalls and market-like set-up from previous years is no longer, and the few remaining stalls are selected for their “relationship to the theme”, Richard said.

“This is also, you know, to celebrate our tenants and the achievement of the trust over the 35 years, and the 100 years celebration of our sponsor Network Waitaki, who has been sponsoring us for years now.”

New heritage-themed games, such as knock the teeth, and a dunking chair will feature, along with the ever-popular beard-growing and stone-sawing competitions.

Competitors don’t need to pre-register - just turn up on the day.

“This is open to anyone who's there, and you know, stone sawing is pretty self-explanatory, and beard growing should be too,” Richard said.

“We'll be concentrating really on entertainment.

“And we will have an information centre to actually tell people about the trust and show what we have done over the last 35 years.”

Trustees will be open to questions, provide information about what they do, and they are also hoping to attract a few new members, Richard said.

The day’s activities run between 10am and 4pm.