The organisers of this year’s Bridgwater Carnival have announced plans that will make the event even bigger and better than ever before. There will be lots more fun and entertainment right through the Carnival day leading up to the big parade itself which has already attracted more entries than the record number of participants in Carnival 2001 - and finally the closing simultaneous squibbing display will be the biggest the town has ever seen.

So what will be happening at this year’s Bridgwater Carnival? Well the whole event kicks off with the annual firework display at St. Matthews Field on Thursday evening. This display, which is organised by Sedgemoor District Council as part of their Carnival Weekend, always attracts a huge crowd and is a fitting prelude to the Guy Fawkes Carnival celebrations.

Events start bright and early on Carnival Day, Friday 8 November and continue right up to the start of the procession in the evening. The Bridgwater Carnival committee has organised something for everyone to enjoy this year and the entertainment includes:

Live music in the Angel Place Shopping Centre.

There’s an Antiques Fair taking place in the Arts Centre, an Arts and Crafts Fair in the Masonic Hall, a Street Fair in Angel Crescent and the monthly Farmers Market in Fore Street.

Both Orchard FM and BCR FM will be staging their popular roadshows from midday onwards.

Two Carnival Exhibitions will be staged, one at the Blake Museum and another at the Town Hall where, all day long, traditional Carnival Fare will be served to satisfy the hunger of the many visitors to the town. Whilst they are enjoying their food they will be able to relax and enjoy Carnivals of the past on a giant video screen.

In the afternoon there will be displays from majorettes in the High Street where there will also be a number of classic vintage cars to be viewed. There’s plenty for the children to enjoy Carnival too with fairground rides, a bouncy castle, face painting in Angel Place and a helter skelter on the Cornhill. Roger Evans will be taking groups of people on an historic town walkabout, there’s street theatre in Fore Street and watch out for a town crier and his lady, Tommy the statue and Robert the Robot.

Visitors will also be invited to take part in some Line Dancing in Angel Place from 4.00pm and the clog dancing group ‘Sweet Coppin’ will entertain the crowds lining up for the parade from 6.30pm in the High Street area. A Treasure Hunt has been organised as well as a Children’s Painting Competition and a Shop Window Competition. So plenty to do and see before the main event - the Carnival Parade - which, as usual, starts at 7.15pm preceded by a small preprocession at 6.45pm.

The move to a Friday proved extremely popular with the spectators who, for the first time were able to travel from afar without the need to rush back home in order to get to work or to ensure their children got to school on time the next day. The organisers of this year’s Carnival are anticipating a similar size audience this year - or even bigger - and have added an extra grandstand to accommodate the viewing public who prefer to sit and watch the parade in relative comfort. Four of these stands will be in Monmouth Street and the others will be erected in Broadway.

So with more events happening on the day aimed at bringing more people into the town early, traders can expect a good days business. And, if 2001 is anything to go by, trading records could be broken for the second year running - Bridgwater’s reputation of staging the world’s largest illuminated carnival parade will be maintained again in 2002 - enjoy it!

Chris Hocking

Bridgwater Carnival Publicity Officer

Tel: 07980 391803