Members of Rowntrees department store at Scarborough parade through the town at the annual Benelux Festival. The theme for 1967 is 'Puff the Magic Dragon'. The film opens showing a door to the Rowntrees premises in Scarborough, which has the store name on it and the instruction ‘Goods Only’. A man dressed in a white coat walks towards the door, and slides it open. Behind the door a small child leads out Puff the magic dragon, made famous by a popular song from the 1960’s. The...

Members of Rowntrees department store at Scarborough parade through the town at the annual Benelux Festival. The theme for 1967 is 'Puff the Magic Dragon'. The film opens showing a door to the Rowntrees premises in Scarborough, which has the store name on it and the instruction ‘Goods Only’. A man dressed in a white coat walks towards the door, and slides it open. Behind the door a small child leads out Puff the magic dragon, made famous by a popular song from the 1960’s. The dragon is an elaborate and long costume which is worn by a number of members of the Rowntrees store parade team. A close view of the dragon’s head shows the creative skill in the design and the execution of producing the costume. The dragon is led down a street, past the United bus garage, to a park where the parade will begin, and judging will take place on the presentation of floats making up the parade. A close view shows the faces [blurred] of those who must endure being in the costume for some time. Their heads encased in silver helmets designed to match the dragon’s spines and scales. The film gives a view of the length of the dragon. Parade floats parked nearby depict a witch hunt, and another is named ‘Thank Heaven for Little Girls’ after the song from the musical Gigi. Miss Scarborough sits waiting in a small sports car, other floats in the parade [over-exposed] include a float which has a sign along it which reads, ‘The Tech’ Welcomes Benelux’, this maybe a reference to Scarborough Further Education College. A range of other floats show colourful costumes commemorating events or other advertising a company or service. Some floats carry teams from some of the Benelux countries. The Promotions Manager from Rowntrees accepts the winning cup for the best float in the parade or in this case an elaborate costume, and first prize in the local traders award. The film moves on to a view of Rowntrees store. An advertisement on the corner of the building, which reads, ‘Holidays Begin at Rowntrees’ A view from an upper floor of the Rowntrees store shows a wind band marching past, followed by an elaborate float advertising Scarborough Hotels. Then the Rowntrees dragon appears, and balloons are released form the upper floor windows of the store. The dragon makes a few circuits in front of the store to the delight of the crowd, before heading off down the street. The Scarborough Tech float follows on, followed by another float advertising the Steltenlopers, a group of stilt walkers from Holland. A small band follows wearing medieval costume, followed by the similarly dressed stilt walkers, with the stilts getting higher as each walker goes past. A Scots pipe band marches past, then the parade grinds to a halt, the remaining members of the parade wait patiently before they can move on, a number of those are on horseback. A car drives past daubed with painted messages to ‘Free Radio 270’ and ‘Ban the BBC’. Radio 270 was an offshore pirate radio station operating off the coast at Scarborough from 1966 until 1967. A general view of the crowd in the street below outside Rowntrees store ends the film.