CARNIVAL FORTNIGHT

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 109, 14 November 1928, Page 13

CARNIVAL FORTNIGHT

COMMENCES SATURDAY WEEK TRANSPORTATION PAGEANT DAY • Everything has "been shaping gradually towards the Great Carnival Fortnight, which commences next Saturday week, 24th' November, and the arrangements are now well in hand. The opening day is the Transportation Pageant Day. Tho preparations arc in full swing, and this pageant gives every promise of breaking all records as far as' Wellington City is concerned. On Monday, 26th November, "Yo Olde London Faire" will be opened in tho Winter Show Buildings, John street, where there will be from forty to fifty old London shops selling all kinds of goods, both new and old, besides sideshows of ©very sort—merry-go-rounds, dodge-ems, dancing, etc., etc. Every night at 8 o'clock there will be presented a unique gymnastic display by the V.M.C.A. boys, followed by a spectacular, choral and orchestral League of Nations Pageant. The dresses and properties provided for the pageant are beautiful in the extreme, and the colour scheme of the whole will be most fascinating. The fifty-four countries of the League aro. to be represented by 150 performers, and there will be an orchestra of seventy instruments and a choir of 500 voices. The music is being specially arranged by Mr. John Bishop, musical director of tho carnival, and the whole production is under the direction of Miss Elizabeth Blake. The League of Nations Pageant runs to Ist December. • 'A DREAM OP FAIR WOMEN.' ' The Carnival Queens will each hold their Courts at the Winter Show, and on 29th November the Palace of Beauty will be opened at 2 p.m. in the Wellington Town Hall, where there will be a display of model shop windows, and the queens and their maids of honour will be in attendance every evening .it 8 p.m. "A Dream of Fair Women" will be presented, showing the Courts of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, the Queen of Sheba, Queen Eleanor, and others. The queens will all be most gorgeously gowned, and the whole pageant will be set to organ music specially arranged and rendered by Mr. Bernard F. Page (City Organist). The pageant itself, which is being produced by Mr. Joe Knowsley, will bo repeated each evening up to and including 6th December. The whole Carnival Fortnight has been woll planned, and all tastes are being catered for. There is to be an electric sports meeting at the Basin Reserve on 28th November, and a cricket match—Old Boys v. University —is to be played on the Basin Reserve on Saturday, Ist December. Friday, 7th December, has been set apart for the University students, and for that day there has been arranged a special street pageant, which will be headed by Joan of Arc and her twelve knights in full armour on horseback. That evening there will be a Confetti Bal Masque at the Winter Show, when it is hoped that joy-makeTS will foregather in large numbers. On the final night of the carnival, Saturday, Bth December, a grand coronation ceremony will be held at the Town Hall, where the whole of tho our of representing Queen Eleanor Pageant and the "Dream of Fair Women" will bo staged at 8 p.m. Which of the throe ratepayers' association candidates is to have the honour of representing Queen Eleanor will be decided at (i o'clock on Thursday evening next, and the result will be made known the following day, when tho Carnival Committee will also announce just how the voting- for the six queens stands. Thenceforward it is proposed to announce daily the position of the voting in the six queens. The five queens already chosen are:—: (1) Education and youth, Joan of Arc, Miss Nancy Dudley; (2) sport, Atalanta, Miss Sybil Swinburne; (3) commerce and the professions, tho Queen of Sheba, Miss Alison Kirkealdie; (4) transportation, Queen Cleopatra, Miss Tiora Meadows; (5) entertainments and music, Iphigeiiia. - iliss Kathleen O'Brien. Every shilling netted in favour of these queuns counts two votes, and every admission ticket to the various pageants, etc., entitles the holder to two votes per shilling for his or her favourite queen. Tlic ballot will bo conducted by Mr. J. E. F. Perry. LEAGUE OF NATIONS PAGEANT. In the League of Nations Pageant will be illustrated the advance of civilisation, the misery and wickedness of war, its futility as an arbiter between nations, and.the blessedness of undisturbed peace and industry. In the grand taleaux all the nations will be represented in their national garb, and each movement and dance is to be accompanied by appropriate music arranged by Mr. Bishop. The orchestra will play such music as the Hungarian March by Berlioz, Saint Saens' "Danse Macabre," and Grieg's "Peer Gynt" Suite, and tho Prelude to the third act of "Lohengrin," whilst the chorus will sing the folk songs of Great Britain, France, and Germany. Mr. Bishop has at present an orchestra.of 35, but he wishes to double that number, and invites all competent players to assist him in making this orchestral aggrogation a notable one. He also wishes to doublo the strength of his chorus. Applications should bo made to him at his studio in tho Civic Chambers, or at rehearsals to be held at tho Y.W.C.A. Hall, on Friday next, or at the Town Hall on Wednesday evening next. The phenomenal success of the first season o£ "A Pair of Silk Stockings," played Jast month by a fine cast of amateurs, has led to a number of requests for a repeat performance. The show will be put on on Friday evening next in aid of the Carnival Funds for the National Art Gallery. The proceeds will go, of course, to the Queen of Amusements fund, and some piquancy is added to this situation from the fact that an oposition queen in Miss Alison Kirkealdie Las a prominent part in the play. The box plan at the Bristol is filling rapidly.