TOWN HALL IN DEMAND

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 145, 15 March 1939, Page 5

TOWN HALL IN DEMAND

Period Of Centenary Celebrations MANY APPLICATIONS As no festival hall or big conference hall is included in the plans of the centennial exhibition, it iyj inevitable that great demands will be made on the Wellington Town Hall and Concert Chamber from November onward. Already many organizations which give regular performances have been making inquiries as to dates, and the year of centennial, particularly the _ six months during which the exhibition will be in progress, promises also to be Wellington’s busiest year for all manner of conferences, congresses and other annual gatherings.

Though plenty of applications have been received for dates or approximate dates, the clerk in charge of booking arrangements for the two municipal halls has given instructions that no bookings are to be made yet for any date after November 1. The reason for this precaution is that within Hie •next two months consideration will be given to the national and civic functions likely to take place in the Town Hall during the centenary year. Naturally such events must take precedence of all others. It is expected that these programmes will be arranged by, or a little after, Easter, so that those interested in booking dates for next year will soon know where they stand. In the meantime applications will doubtless be received. These will receive consideration only after the national and civic programmes have been arranged.

Wellington is not very well off for halls suitable for gatherings in which large sections of the public are concerned. There was some talk of a festival hall at the exhibition at the outset of the project, but the opinion which prevailed was that, outside three or four big gatherings, the old idea of a large concert hall and grand organ was something out of the past. In short, it was considered that such an adjunct to an exhibition was nut economic. It was admirable to have such a place for the opening ceremony, aim when big choral performances were given, but otherwise such a hall was a white elephant. For that reason the idea of a festival hall was dropped. The only things that will in any way take its place are the al fresco piazzas in front of the sound shells, where the band performances will be given by the Band of H.M. Welsh Guards. The success of such performances will largely depend on the weather. Whether some arrangement will be provided for seating audiences on such occasions is a matter that has yet to be considered; otherwise the performances will take upon themselves *the nature of promenade concerts.