Britain to Stage Great Festival Of “Fun and Fantasy”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26905, 18 October 1948, Page 5

Britain to Stage Great Festival Of “Fun and Fantasy”

N.Z.P.A.—Reuter—Copyright LONDON, Oct. 15. The present uncertainties will not affect Britain’s determination to stage in 1951 a great- “ festival of Britain,” which is expected to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the world. Lord Ismay, the festival chairman, and a director, Mr Gerald Barry, said to-day that 1951 would be “ a year of gaiety and festivity, of fun and games which the bitter circumstances of the past few years have denied us.”

The plans include a' general exhibition of British life and British contributions to civilisation, travelling exhibitions, and an eight weeks’ festival of music, opera, ballet, theatre, music halls and films. Lighter forms of entertainment wil include flower displays, fountains, fireworks, floodlighting, pageantry, sport and open-air cafe life.

Mr Barry said that 1951 would be “a year of fun, fantasy and colour, a year in which we can, while soberly surveying the great past and promising future, for once let ourselves go, and in which the mvth that we take our pleasures sadly will finally be disproved. “Financial half measures would be fatal, and would provide ammunition for foreign critics who affect to believe that Britain is finished. The festival will boost Brita n’s tourist and export trades, and the British dominions and colonies will participate.” The central exhibition will be sited on the south bank of the Thames, and will cover 27 acres which the London County Council, at the Government’s request, has already started to clear and have ready for a new temporary “festival city.” Expenditure on the scheme will be £2,000,000. £1,250,000 on a concert hall to seat 4000. The buildings .vill be of a new type, and new materials to be used will give architects a free hand in evolving buildings which will have a big influence on architecture.