1835, “Bowery Theatre”, in The New-York Mirror, volume 13, page 310:
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 ...
1906 August, Fanny Johnson, “Folk-plays and Folk-education”, in The School World, volume VIII, number 92, London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., page 289:
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.
1907 May 8, “The Oxford Pageant”, in The Bystander, volume XIV, number 179, London, page 280:
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.
1948 September 7, “Miss America Due to Be Chosen”, in The New York Times, page 28:
The “pageant fever” that strikes this resort each September ...
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:
Whether we admit it or not, once a year (and only once), the country comes down with pageant fever.
An enthusiastic desire to participate in pageants.
