The Festival of Empire or Festival of the Empire was held at The Crystal Palace in London in 1911, to celebrate the coronation of King George V. It opened on 12 May.
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Exhibitions of products from the countries of the Empire were displayed in three-quarter size models of their Parliamentary buildings erected in the grounds.[1]
A pageant dramatising the history of London, England and the Empire was held.[2] Frank Bridge wrote incidental music for a portion of the Pageant: The Pageant of London for military band and male chorus, H.98 (1911).[3]
As part of the festival, an Inter-Empire sports championship was held in which teams from Australasia (a combined team from Australia and New Zealand), Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom competed in five athletics events (100 yards, 220 yards, 880 yards, 1 mile and 120 yards hurdles), two swimming events (100 yards and 1 mile), heavyweight boxing and middleweight wrestling.[4] This is regarded as a forerunner of the British Empire Games (now Commonwealth Games), held from 1930.
Competitors included Harold Hardwick (from Australia), Malcolm Champion (from New Zealand) and John Tait (from Canada).