17 JULY 1964, Page 4

City Pleasures

OF all the Festivals of the Arts which have sprung up in recent years, that in the City of London is perhaps the most welcome. It is astonishing that on only its second occasion it should be presenting, if not recherche, certainly not just respectable musical programmes, and that it should already be branching into drama. The money, of course, is there and should rightly be tapped. It will be said that it has no point, for the people who work in the City don't live there. It is equally true that the people who don't work in the City don't go there. The Festival is one way of attracting them. The boom in 'Man bites dog . . office-building is surely over. Under the next Government, whoever forms it, the emphasis will be rather on building communities. The City could still be one of them: it is beginning to get the amenities.