MUSIC AND DANCING.

The amount of music being performed in the parks and open spaces controlled by the London County Council from now on to September is enormous. Nearly eighty bands (both military and brass) are performing each day of the week (including Sunday mornings and evenings) at one or other of these places, which reach from Averyhill, Eltham, to Wormwood Scrubbs; from Golders-hill in the north to Blackheath in the south. But the outstanding feature of this year’s arrangements is the big enclosures which have been made in the larger parks for dancing. On Thursday evenings, for example, hundreds of couples may be seen footing it merrily on the turf in the latest novelty dances, and, incidentally, doing it in a manner which might be the envy of the best ball-room dancers – at such places as Blackheath-common, Clissold Park, Hackney Downs, Hilly Fields, Brockley, Parliament-hill, Peckham Rye, Plumstead-common, Ravenscourt Park, Royal Victoria Gardens (N. Woolwich), Southwark Park, and Victoria Park, E. On Wednesday evenings the same thing takes place at Battersea Park, Clapham-common, Brockwell Park (Herne-hill), and Wandsworth-common. Also on Saturdays at Finsbury Park. The performances last from six to nine, and there is a M.C. in attendance and everything is conducted in proper ballroom fashion, but in an open-air enclosure. There is never the slightest suspicion of rowdyism, and most of the dancing is of a high order.