Competitions Festival

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28890, 9 May 1959, Page 12

Competitions Festival

Any movement that widens and deepens a community’s culture deserves support. One such movement is the Christchurch Competitions Society, which today will open its annual festival. The society is 50 years old; and this is its forty-seventh festival. After a serious decline, the society is regaining its earlier vigour; and the 1959 festival has attracted 2812 entries—ls 4 more than last year. About 600 of the competitors, some from as far away as Auckland and Bluff, are adults. Public interest in national dancing, elocution, singing, and instrumental music is encouraged

by the annual festivals; most important of all, they encourage young people to take an active rather than a passive interest in music and allied arts. The Competitions Society relies for its success upon voluntary efforts by its members, the support of business firms, and public attendances at its concerts. Each festival costs the society about £2000; and only with practical public endorsement can the series be continued. Christchurch would be the poorer without the competitions; and it is satisfactory that, in spite of recorded music and the cinema, they vigorously survive.