We had an unusual call from Hayley Dryland earlier today about New Zealand’s biggest toast on record to launch this year’s 20th anniversary Montana World of Wearable Art (WOW) show.
Katherine Thomson, currently interning with us, and I drove down to Civic Square to see a targeted 500 people raise their glasses of Montana Reserve Brut Cuvée to launch the event. Ultimately, 430 were captured on camera raising their plastic ?utes, standing in position to form the letters WOW, as seen from the air. And the 500 who participated (all over 18) were given a voucher for a bottle of the Montana bubbly for their trouble, redeemed at Capital City Wines on Waring Taylor Street.
Both WOW artistic director Suzie Moncrieff (above left, after coming down from the platform) and Montana sponsorship manager Glen Candy—a long-standing friend of this magazine—were present. Below is a video edited during the day from Spark’s team, plus a few camera–cellphone images we captured of the preparations.