Dual role for parade

Press, 18 November 1981, Page 6

Dual role for parade

The annual Farmers-Hay-wrights Christmas parade will be held on Saturday, complete with a special centennial section to mark the hundredth anniversary of the Farmers store. The section will feature a centennial float depicting the Canterbury Plains with a horse and plough and a settler family.

Also included in this section will be a covered waggon and a stagecoach, which have been lent by the Fairlie Museum. These will be followed by a vintage steam engine. It is” the first time that these vehicles have been used in the pageant. , “The emphasis, will be on the centennial section,” said the pageant producer, Mr F. H. Hollingwdrth.

Seventy-three floats,, bands, and marching teams will assemble for the ■pageant, which will begin from Park Terrace at 10 a.m.

The floats will gather between the Armagh Street bridge and the Carlton Mill bridge in Park Terrace and will travel a circular route back to the starting point.

They will travel via Armagh Street and south on Durham Street before turning west into Cambridge Terrace, continuing past the Antigua Boatsheds, turning north into Rolleston Avenue, and then back to Park Terrace.

Preparations for the pageant began about five months ago, said Mr Hollingworth. “All our floats are kept at our studios at Papanui and over the last few weeks our staff have been working to reassemble them for Saturday’s parade.”

All of the old favourites, including Father Christmas, will be on display. Walking characters will include Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Mad Hatter, Little Red Riding Hood, and a drummer, who will lead the parade. Mr Hollingworth said that about 300 Farmers-Hay-wrights staff would be involved in the pageant, including drivers, dressers, and parade characters. “But if you include all the people from the bands and the marching teams about 1000 will be taking part,” he said.