Airborne Pyrotechnics from the UK will perform a night aerial show at Wings Over Wairarapa in Masterton on Saturday.

Wings Over Wairarapa has been cancelled in its entirety, leaving event manager Jenny Gasson gutted.

Organisers cancelled Sunday's day show and night show on Sunday morning. This follows a cancelled practice day on Friday and a cancelled day on Saturday.

Gasson said she was "absolutely devastated" to have to cancel the festival in its entirety, but it was the right decision. Sunday's forecast had included showers, and the chance of thunderstorms and small hail, she said.

SUPPLIED Aerosparx motorised gliders are one of the attractions for this year's Wings Over Wairarapa.

Coupled with this, persistent rain had fallen since Friday - creating unsafe ground conditions. The rainfall was more than the average total monthly rainfall for February.

"This is extremely hard for everyone involved but it's heartening to know we have the support of our sponsors, our volunteers, our partners and the public that this was the right decision," she said.

Projected numbers for this weekend based on pre-sales had been comparable with the 2015 Air Festival which attracted 24,000 people over the three days.

Wings Over Wairarapa chairman Bob Francis said it was devastating for his team, many of whom had been working on the festival for 22 months.

It's been a tough weekend for organisers of the air show.

First, both the first Saturday session and the evening show were cancelled because of poor weather, then a large diesel spill on the Rimutaka Hill Road closed that section of State Highway 2, effectively cutting off Wellington from Wairarapa.

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One motorist said there was "a heap of diesel spilled everywhere, both sides of the hill on both sides of the road. [It] will take hours to clean up." The road was reopened shortly before 1pm on Saturday.

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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 air shows 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."

Wings organisers will refund any tickets purchased for the 2017 event. They said ticket holders can email support@ticketdirect.co.nz for any refund requests.

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Refunds were also being offered to ticketholders hrough Ticketek.