Taking place at Crystal Palace, sixty years after the Great Exhibition, the Festival of Empire opened with a ‘Grand Opening Concert’ on 12 May 1911. This consisted of an ‘Imperial choir’ of 4500 voices, with music provided by the Queen’s Hall Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Festival of Empire Military Band. The concert included Elgar’s arrangement of ‘God Save the King’ and his ‘Land of Hope and Glory’, as well as a ‘Patriotic Chorus: For Empire and for King’ by Percy E. Fletcher.
A huge 'historical' pageant which consisted of four parts, staged over three days by 15,000 volunteers, ran for four months, and was organized by Frank Lascelles, who was known at the time as ‘the man who staged the Empire’ as he was also responsible for the Coronation Durbar in Delhi in 1911. The pageant was designed to represent, as the souvenir book claimed, ‘the gradual growth and development of the English nation, as seen in the history of this, the Empire City.’ It was one of the numerous events held to celebrate the coronation of King and Emperor George V. To represent the Indian aspect of empire, the pageant included a re-enactment of the 1877 Delhi Durbar where Queen Victoria was proclaimed empress.
The Festival, by all accounts, was pure imperialist propaganda. The souvenir brochure used a domestic rhetoric to signal the event’s aims: it was ‘a Social Gathering of the British Family’ to encourage the ‘firmer welding of those invisible bonds which hold together the greatest empire the world has ever known’. Members of the India Society, including E. B. Havell and Walter Crane, were involved with the Indian Court of the Festival which was divided into four sections: 1. The History of India and of its inhabitants at different periods; 2. The daily life of the people; 3. The Art of India; 4. Progress in recent times.
Ananda Coomaraswamy contributed an article to the Indian Court guidebook on the new ‘Indian School’ painting, describing works by artists such as Abanindranath Tagore which were on display at the Festival. Walter Crane also designed publicity for the event.
