Happy Birthday New Castle!
Pageant type
Notes
Information drawn from 'Survey of Historical Pageants' undertaken by Mick Wallis; with thanks to Patricia Sheldon of Newcastle City Libraries.
Performances
Place: Castle Keep (Newcastle upon Tyne) (Newcastle Upon Tyne, Northumberland, England)
Year: 1980
Indoors/outdoors: Outdoors
Number of performances: n/a
Notes
1980
The dates and numbers of performances are unknown.
Name of pageant master and other named staff
Names of executive committee or equivalent
n/a
Names of script-writer(s) and other credited author(s)
- Deary, Terry
Names of composers
n/a
Numbers of performers
n/a
Financial information
n/a
Object of any funds raised
n/a
Linked occasion
Newcastle 900 Anniversary celebrations
Audience information
Prices of admission and seats: highest–lowest
n/a
Associated events
Many events and activities, linked to 900th anniversary
Pageant outline
Key historical figures mentioned
n/a
Musical production
n/a
Newspaper coverage of pageant
n/a
Book of words
n/a
Other primary published materials
n/a
References in secondary literature
n/a
Archival holdings connected to pageant
- Newcastle City Libraries hold the pageant script: Deary, Terry, Happy Birthday New Castle! 1980. 24pp. (L791.6)
Sources used in preparation of pageant
n/a
Summary
The city of Newcastle upon Tyne marked its nine hundredth anniversary in 1980. During the course of this year, a wide range of celebratory events, activities and attractions were organised. These were many and various, including a full-scale replica of Stephenson's Rocket, which was displayed outside Newcastle Civic Centre, a series of commemorative subway mosaics, an elaborate 'water pageant' featuring Viking longships and much else besides, and a specially-built Anniversary Centre in the Eldon Square Shopping Centre. The festivities were formally opened by the Queen Mother on 16 April and ran for the rest of the year (more details can be gleaned from an interesting series of posts, available here).
'Happy Birthday New Castle' was just one of the events that took place during the year of celebrations. Held outside the Castle Keep, the event seems to have focused on the early history of the locality, the performance concluding with a scene from the English Civil War.
Footnotes
How to cite this entry
Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘Happy Birthday New Castle!’, The Redress of the Past, http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/1601/