General manager of Brewtown, Phil Gorman with the recently boganised Upper Hutt sign. Photo: SUPPLIED
The people of Upper Hutt City are proudly wearing their "bogan heritage" on their tattooed sleeves.
Even mayor Wayne Guppy donned his best mullet hairdo in support of a weekend of hard rock, black t-shirts, fast cars and beer.
Guppy said he still had a few old Uriah Heep and AC/DC records lurking in his collection.
He appeared in a promotional video for this weekend's Brewtown's Bogan Day Out - rocking his best black jeans and getting a fresh new 'I love Upper Hutt' tattoo.
Guppy admitted the tattoo was fake - but said the sentiment was real.
Welcome to Bogan Town
Guppy said it was time for the city to "proudly stand up and celebrate its bogan culture" - and what better way than a weekend of music, beer, art and cars.
The city even modified its town sign in homage to the event.
"Its about cars, its about clothing and music. Today many of those 60s and 70s bogans are now older bogans and still enjoy that lifestyle. So that's something to embrace and when you come to Upper Hutt, you will see it's not 'welcome to Upper Hutt' it's 'Welcome to Bogan Town'," Guppy said.
From Bodgies to Bogans
The director of Whirinaki Whare Taonga, Leanne Wickham said the Bodgies to Bogans exhibition would tell the stories of rebellious teenagers of the 1950s - coined bodgies - through to the fans of the heavy metal boom of the 1980's.
She said the region's bogan links could be traced back to a moral panic that sprang from reports of juvenile sexual delinquency stemming from the "milk bar gangs" of the mid 1950s.
Milk Bar Cowboys with their motorbikes in the 1950's. Photo: SUPPLIED
"The New Zealand government was so concerned with young people - and their loose morals - that they actually commissioned the Mazengarb report focussing on what was happening in the Hutt Valley.
"They suggested that it was the music and woman going to work. All these causes why these teenagers were being promiscuous at milk bars and the rest of it," Wickham said.
Brewtown celebrates Bogan Day Out
Brewtown General Manager, Phil Gorman was well known in the area for his flowing locks - long in the back and short at the front.
He said - being Upper Hutt born and bred - he was happy to identify as bogan.
"Living in this community here you can look and dress whatever the way that you feel. To me it's about being comfortable - a little bit rough around the edges - a bogan is someone that's heavily influenced with metal music," Gorman said.
Brewtown were hosting tribute bands bashing out the hits of Deep Purple, Pantera and AC/DC, as well as best mullet competitions, barbecue cook offs, tugs of war, truck displays and more.
The nearby Te Mārua speedway would also hold an evening of stockcars, ministocks and saloons for those who took their entertainment with a heady dose of high octane fuel.
Fashions come and go but 'boganity' is timeless
Kiwi heavy metal legends Knightshade performing at another city steeped in bogan culture, Hamilton. Featured in the Bodgies to Bogans exhibition. Photo: SUPPLIED
Musician Andrew Bedford had been playing in metal bands in and out of the Hutt for more than 30 years.
He said fashions came and went but the bogan attitude was timeless.
"Maybe it's the attitude of youth that's like 'hey you can't tell me what to do. I'm gonna grow my hair long and put on a leather jacket and play really loud music, you squares'.
"You know what you like and you like what you know and in the case of boganity it's usually the hard raucous music, the V8s and beer with the buddies around a beast roasting on a spit," Bedford said.
Bogan Day Out kicks off on Saturday at Brewtown and all over Upper Hutt.
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