Chairman’s Comment On Festival Complaint

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30826, 11 August 1965, Page 20

Chairman’s Comment On Festival Complaint

The planners erf the next Pan Pacific Arts Festival, to be held in Christchurch in 1968, could be reasonably confident that the festival could be assured of success if based on orchestral concerts, opera, ballet, arts displays and drama, the chairman of the 1968 festival executive (Mr H. G. Hay), said in reply to a correspondent to “The Press,” Julia Gray. Julia Gray wrote, Mr H. G. Hay is reported to have stated: “We can plan for a festival based purely and simply on the arts and not attached to vintage car rallies, horticultural shows, and cricket matches.” At the last Pan-

Pacific Arts Festival I was directly associated with the horticultural societies’ display in Hagley Park. I feel that the many thousands of persons who saw the display of floral art will agree about the pleasure they received and that the artistic floral arrangements were in world class, and were a great credit to the local bodies. Later, I was privileged to be invited by the Horticultural Society to attend a film evening of photographs of this display. The arrangements of flowers were “purely art.” I consider Mr Hay’s remarks concerning the Horticultural Society unfair. Mr Hay in his reply said,

“When I stated that the 1968 Pan Pacific Arts Festival should be based purely on the arts I was aware that there would be no possibility of an association with the Horticultural Society’s biennial flower show since the next show is to be held in 1967. I am just as aware as anybody of the outstanding merit of the Horticultural Society’s display of floral art and in fact made no specific reference to the society in my remarks. “However, whereas in planning the recent Arts Festival, the festival executive was delighted to know that there would also be the added attraction of a major horticul-

tural show in the city. The great success of the artistic events of the festival—orchestral concerts, opera ballet, arts display and drama—were such that the planners of the next festival can be reasonably confident that the festival can be assured of success based on these arts alone. No doubt consideration will again be given to the inclusion of floral art in the programme in view of the notable success of the Japanese floral art displays in the recent festival.”

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