Floral week will open Chch festival

Press, 24 September 1983, Page 29

Floral week will open Chch festival

The 1984 Christchurch Festival will begin with a street parade for local bodies, community groups, and individuals on February 25. Invitations to take part have been sent to groups in the last week.

As the opening event of the festival’s Floral Week (February 25 to March 3) the parade will feature a strong floral theme and some organisations have been invited to prepare floral floats.

“Participation by other groups can take an enormous variety of forms” said the festival director, Mr Ray Sleeman, “We also want bands, vintage cars, decorated animals, theatre groups, dancers, jugglers, and horse-drawn vehicles,” he said.

Prizes will be awarded in various categories, such as the over-all best entrant in the parade, best decorated animal, decorated bicycle, band, and performance group.

The organisers of the Floral Week activities, under the convener, Mr Ron Proctor, have already started planning for the vast number of flowers required for both colouring the city during the week and decorating the floral floats.

The Christchurch City Council, the Waimairi District Council, and other local bodies are planting about 10 acres of flowers. Planning for the festival is well under way and the organisers will soon release details of festival artists.