Detail of one panet of a gatepost sarved by boys of the Minginui Forest Maori School. Toolmarks and tiny defects are still visible, but will be removed later. A First Music Festival by G. A. McCRACKEN A few Weeks ago, three schools in the Te Whaiti-Minginui district of the Urewera, came together to perform their first Music Festival. Being the first of its kind, and successful beyond expectation it will be followed probably by another Festival at Minginui, and it is likely that schools in other places will follow the lead and also combine. How does one go about starting a Schools' Music Festival? Probably with an idea, for these festivals are things that just grow, once that little seed idea has been sown. Cities have had such concerts for years, but they have taken time to develop even where transport is not a problem. In the country there are more difficulties. Before the first attempt, the children will not necessarily know what a Festival is even; suggest the possibility, and you will hear them chattering wonderingly away, ‘we're going to have a “bestible;” ‘What is a “bestible” ever.’ But it will not be long before they are noticing photos and comments about say, Auckland's Schools' Festival in the newspapers, perhaps listening to it on the radio, and then, after their own effort they will be looking, listening and above all comparing. The Minginui Festival began with the songs the schoolchildren were learning from the school sessions of the radio broadcasts. As the year advanced they acquired quite a repertoire of songs which they liked and could sing well; then came the idea…‘let's have a combined concert … a Festival of Song’ an idea which meant revising Tihema Ruri is lost in contemplation of an intricate piece of his own pattern work.