Dundee' shows his glass

First there was the Olympics, then the Winter Olympics, then the Special Olympics - now Wanganui has its own Glass Olympics.

Held at Chronicle Glass on Saturday, the Glass Olympics involved four teams of glass artists and glass students - representing Australia, Romania, Ireland and Samoa - competing in a variety of glass-based challenges for the gold medal.

Glass artist Lyndsay Patterson said these challenges included blowing the largest platter and doing the "glass-blowing equivalent of the three-legged race".

He said the event involved "some dressing up and some fun", especially as an enthusiastic audience came along to cheer the teams on and help MC Dominic Burrell with the judging.

Romania were the winners on the day.

Mr Patterson said the Glass Olympics were a light-hearted way to enjoy glass blowing, and the audience had got into the spirit of it.

The Glass Olympics were one of the last major events of Wanganui's annual festival of glass, which finished yesterday.

Mr Patterson, who is a glass artist at Chronicle Glass, said this year's festival had been "a great success".

"At Chronicle Glass we get to meet a lot of people, and there were a lot of people from Wellington and the Kapiti Coast - even people from Auckland.

"Some people had driven up from Wellington just for the day."

He said locals had also been very supportive of the glass festival.