Sixth Annual Festival

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31830, 7 November 1968, Page 14

Sixth Annual Festival

The sixth annual Methven Floral Festival on Saturday should bring the total profits from the festivals to well over $15,000. From 1963 to 1967, the five years in which the festival has been held, more than $14,500 has been raised.

Profits from the festivals go to a civic development fund, and to date three projects have benefited substantially.

The - largest amount paid was $7500, for extensive improvements to the Methven swimming baths. The improvements also included the installation of a filtration plant. A further $4OOO was spent on building an enclosed foyer around the main entrance of the Mount Hutt Memorial Hall. A children’s recreation area was developed with $2OOO from the fund, and it was recently completed and handed over to the Ashburton County Council. Proceeds from this year’s festival will go towards a new play centre at Methven. Any money in excess of that required for the play centre will be given to the Methven Pipe Band for the purchase of new uniforms.

Although the number of floats in the processions has declined slightly over the

years, the standard and variety of additional entertainments remain high. This year two new attractions will be staged at the Showgrounds after the procession. A sheaf-tossing competition will be introduced with an attractive prize of $2O to the first person to toss a sheaf over a bar 30ft high. The second new attraction is a piano-smashing competition. The piano has to be reduced to pieces that will pass through a small frame. The highlight of the afternoon will be the crowning of the festival queen, who will be the princess of the winning float. Public voting decides the placings of the floats, and two radio personalities, Veronica Edmondson and Arch King, will pick the float they like most. Six bands will be participating in the procession this year. There will be two brass bands and four pipe bands, and later at the showgrounds they will give a massed bands demonstration. The Junior Princess contest is a new innovation this year. It is open to girls betw-en the ages of five and seven, and the winning contestants will also be decided by public vote. Eight of the floats will have Junior Princesses.

A dance will be held in the Mount Hutt Memorial Hall on Saturday evening.

Several other attractions are to be conducted after festival day. These include the “Agfa 100” golf tournament, a festival cabaret, a swimming carnival, a gun club shoot and a jet boat rally at the Rakaia Gorge. A repertory production, tug-o-war. Guy Fawkes bonfire. and Choral Society concert have already been staged, and tomorrow a Wear-A-Flower Day will be held in Methven. An art and antique exhibition opens today and it will continue until Tuesday, next week. Float titles and their respective princesses and junior princesses this year are:— “The Memorial Haul,” Miss Margaret Henderson: "An Ascot Creation.” Miss Faye Jackways, junior princess JoAnn Walsh: “Humpty Dumnty,” Miss Julianne Nicoll, junior princess Jenny Husband: “Fred Flintstone," Miss Christine Nordquist: "Heralding Christmas,” Miss Patricia Rouse, junior princess. Geraldine Smith: “Whisky Galore,” Miss Janet Wilson, junior princess Sandra Dickson; “Olympic Games." Miss Helen Brai.ch, junior nrincess Sandra Erridge: "The Peacock,” Miss Barbara Thomas: “A Life on' the Ocean Wave,” Miss Dianne Burgess, junior princess Linda Crawford: “School of Ballet,” Miss Judith Harrison, junior princess Michelle May.