More Info →Floral Festival Parade - Combined Retail Stores Swan float

Description

The Floral Festival was a weeklong series of events organised by the Palmerston North Public Relations Organisation between the 17th and 22nd of February 1958. The events were well attended, and many businesses got into the spirit of the occasion with floral themed window displays, quizzes, fashion shows and film festival showings. The event was topped off by the parade, attended by hundreds of people along the route.

The Manawatu Evening Standard on 24th February 1958 described this entry as being "...the work of the combined retail stores in the city and well deserved its placing of first in its section. The float, which was made in two pieces, showed a perfectly outlined swan drawing a bevy of beautiful girls, who were surrounded by white and blue blossoms. Completely decorated in artificial blossoms, this float was the result of much painstaking work by three who designed and built it."

After the festival, The Manawatū Standard reported (25 February 1958) "Many people have congratulated Mr Beckett [Public Relations Officer] and his assistant Miss B. Norman, on the success of the Floral Festival which brought to the city visitors from over a wide area. With the influx of these visitors trade in the local retail stores automatically quickened in tempo, and it would appear that the festival did much for Palmerston North."

This image is from the slide collection of Nola Wilson

Identification

Object type

Image

Relation

2006-12

Date

February 22, 1958

Digitisation ID

2023S_2006-12_040956

Format

Slide