This film is part of Free
A colourful May festival parade in the Lancashire town.
Led by the inevitable brass band, a parade files past the camera: Morris dancers, boys in sailor suits, boys dressed as Victorian beefeaters and the Boys' Brigade all troop past until the carriage bearing the May Queen pauses, slightly uncomfortably, for her close-up. The film was one of 35 within this collection commissioned by George Green, one of the pioneers of fairground cinema.
Leyland's May festival dates no further back than 1889, when it was inaugurated as a children's festival to revive observance of Royal Oak Day, the commemoration of the restoration of the monarchy in May 1660. It was held annually from 1889 to 1936 with a few gaps, then revived again in 1951 to celebrate the Festival of Britain, continuing to this day.
