pageant fever

All ranks appear to have imbibed the pageant-fever from the fair aristocrat, who arranges her raven locks after the Jewess fashion, so becomingly borne by Mrs. Flynn, down to the ragged urchin who patrols the street with a stick and a kite ...

1835, “Bowery Theatre”, in The New-York Mirror, volume 13, page 310

One can fancy, if this “Pageant fever” continues, that Bury St. Edmunds will be boasting that she has gathered her tens of thousands where Warwick gathered her thousands, and so on.

1906 August, Fanny Johnson, “Folk-plays and Folk-education”, in The School World, volume VIII, number 92, London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., page 289

Last year, it may be remembered, my allusions, such as they were, to the Pageant fever that obsessed the country (Pageantitis) were couched in somewhat supercilious vain.

1907 May 8, “The Oxford Pageant”, in The Bystander, volume XIV, number 179, London, page 280

Whether we admit it or not, once a year (and only once), the country comes down with pageant fever.

1992, Armando Riverol, Live from Atlantic City: The History of the Miss America Pageant Before, After and in Spite of Television, Popular Press, page iii

Most contestants don't need much encouragement; once they begin to compete they catch pageant fever.

1984, Newsweek, volume 104, numbers 10–18, page 60

By Thursday, Momma's pageant fever was worse than ever, though the tri-county pageant wasn't until early June.

2012, Kirsten Hubbard, Like Mandarin, Ember, page 151