Parade packs city streets

Press, 19 November 1984, Page 1

Parade packs city streets

Between 50,000 and 60,000 people watched the Farmers’ Trading Company’s annual Christmas parade wend its way through Christchurch innercity streets yesterday. Children and young-at-heart adults enthusiastically clapped, cheered, and waved red-and-blue F.T.C. flags at the passing floats and bands. They stood three and four deep along the parade route, from the Armagh Street gates to North Hagley Park, to Victoria Square. The parade began at 2 p.m. and finished at 3 p.m., just before it began to rain. Several hundred children, many sitting on adults’ shoulders, waved to Father Christmas, who stood on the awning outside F.T.C.’s city store as about 100 multicoloured balloons were released to mark the end of the parade. The 22 floats in the parade included many past and present children’s heroes. The Flintstones, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Humpty Dumpty, Pinocchio, Mother Goose, Superman, Aladdin, and Snoopy and the Red Baron were some of those represented. Among the others was Donald Duck riding an “Easy Rider” motor-cycle, and a Peter Pan pirate ship, with a fearsome-looking pirate who yelled “aargh” along the route. Several child gymnasts from Bucketts Gymnasium, including three young girls on unicycles, performed for the crowd. There were also 14 bands, a red doubledecker bus, a traction engine .with a piercing whistle, and a “pack of cards” worn on sandwich-boards by 52 children. .

About 500 people, including 22 clowns, featured in the parade. The floats were made by a team of three men during the last few weeks; some were new, and some were renovated from earlier parades. The manager of F.T.C.’s city store, Mr Alan Hood, said the parade had gone “without a hitch” and was one of the best yet.