Actual preparations for the festival, which was to last for two weeks, began on Saturday, 27 July 1720 with the appointment of Halil Efendi, the Superintendent of the Kitchens as festival-superintendent. The first task undertaken was the construction of festival-trees and candy-gardens. These were quickly completed as ordered after which the sultan and his sons came to Eski Saray to view them twenty days before the festival was to start. After graciously acknowledging those who met him at the main entrance to a summer-house near the Bayezid mosque, the sultan entered the building and seated himself before a screened window together with his sons. The boys prevailed upon him to be allowed to enter the garden and see the festival-trees up close. So great was their pleasure that the sultan expressed a wish to examine the objects himself and join his sons in their promenade. The first image shows the sultan, his sons, and their retinues touring the palace grounds.

Near the upper right hand corner of the first image at the right (6b) is a building we are to understand is the summer-palace with its screened window. The sultan is the largest of the three figures immediately to the right of the painting's center while the three princes are located slightly in advance of him and to his right. The dark-skinned figure standing just behind the sultan on his right is the chief of the Black Eunuchs; his sword-bearer stands to the left and is shown holding up the hem of the sultan's cloak. The group of figures extending from the center to the right edge of the frame are pages of the Privy Chamber and other servants. In the foreground at the right is the sultan's horse fitted with a jeweled harness and draped in a gold-embroidered saddle-cloth being led by two equerries of the Privy Stables wearing white conical caps. The robed figure holding a staff as he proceeds them is the steward of the Doormen. The red-robed figure wearing a cap and swinging a censor of burning incense as he leads the way must be a Bostanji sergeant-at-arms, the head of the sultan's personal bodyguard.

In the image at the left (7a) we see the festival-trees (the conical objects dominating the scene) and the candy-gardens (confectionery sculptures, the four objects in the foreground) in a wall-enclosed courtyard. The figures to the left of the gate wearing crested headgear and armed with swords and spears are peyks, running footmen. At the right are solaks sporting the huge white crests that were their trademark. Between them are two figures, one of whose blue robes can just be made out, who are doormen.

3. Solaks: Janissaries from the 60th, 61st, 62nd, and 63rd regiments who served as the sultan’s personal guards. The word solak means "leftie" or "lefthanded". The term was given to these troops because two of their four officers, who marched to the right of the sultan in processions and were armed with bows and arrows, carried their bows at the right and fired their arrows with their left hand. (This was to make it easier for them to protect the sultan's right flank and to avoid their having to spin around in order to use their weapons.)

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