AUCKLAND FESTIVAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 440, 23 August 1928, Page 14

AUCKLAND FESTIVAL

VALUE OF COMPETITIONS FOSTERING THE ARTS To-day will see the commencement of the Auckland Competitions Society’s annual festival. Excellent entries have been received, and a busy fortnight lies ahead of judges and officials. The advent of the competitions will also give rise to the usual amount of criticism against such festivals, generally indulged in by people who never go near them, and who for the most part are totally ignorant of the manner in which they are conducted and of their aims and objects. Despite this criticism, there is no doubt whatever that the holding of such annual festivals cannot help but promote an interest on the part of many of the growing generation in the various arts catered for, whether it be music, elocution, dancing, or litera-

ture. If it does this, much good must result. A stock argument which ‘is frequently resurrected is that competitions encourage precocity in children. Those who have had experience of competitions, either as performers or in an executive capacity, know that this is not so. Juvenile competitors who have been regarded as star artists in the home circle or at their school often find, upon rubbing shoulders with numerous competitors of their own age, that their talents are not as highly regarded by those appointed to sit in judgment upon them. There they receive no fulsome flattery, but candid and constructive criticism, which is noted on their papers for their benefit. That the remarks and advice tendered by the judges are appreciated .is evident to anyone who has observed the avidity with which they are read. It can also be said of competitions that they provide performers with an immediate objective. The competitive spirit is at the root of all progression, and it is in the striving to attain an objective that the greatestimprovement is generally registered.