The extreme reality over the increasing costs of living is impacting upon us all.

This big squeeze is meaning we are tightening our belts with our spend, as prices rise faster than they have done for 40 years.

Nobody is immune to the financial crisis and hardship this country is facing. Not even the carnival, with committees, clubs and other entrants all being affected.

In this current financial climate, it will probably be costing a typical carnival club approximately £10,000 in electricity, insurance, road tax fees, etc. this year.

This is before we add on costs for timber, metal, fuel and other materials, which have soared in recent months.

Therefore, constructing carnival carts to the very high standard we have become accustomed to seeing at Bridgwater Carnival, will prove to be extremely expensive.

Disappointingly, there doesn’t seem much confidence that financial stability will come any time soon.

We mentioned electricity charges earlier and to provide some context, back in 2019 and before the pandemic, the electricity charges for some of our clubs for the lighting and power in the sheds needed to build their entries reached nearly £4,000 per annum.

Undoubtedly these charges will be increasing further over the coming months, especially as the much talked about energy price cap only covers consumers and residential customers, and therefore unfortunately our clubs are not protected by this tool.

We can only hope the rising costs across the board do not become too debilitating for the clubs.

If you would like to help the clubs, you can do so by supporting fundraisers and by buying a ticket for this year’s forthcoming carnival concerts. I am sure they would appreciate any help they can get.

As a carnival committee, we are also feeling the financial pinch. To stage the carnival procession, it now costs us approximately £15,000 before we do anything.

This is to cover the ever-increasing costs of must needed items such as insurance, music licences and medical cover.

We need to make sure we have the available money for these before we can even start thinking about proceeding with all of the other arrangements for this year’s event.

Even though there is no shying away from the fact money is going to be really tight this year, all carnivalites are absolutely determined to stage a carnival concert and procession the town can be proud of, especially after a two year Pandemic related hiatus.

We need to plan how we can support each other over the coming weeks and months to weather this financial storm, and we must continue to explore more innovative ways of securing income, ensuring value for money, and stopping any unnecessary spend.

After all, one of the reasons we are involved with carnival is to support local charities and to raise monies for good causes, and we sincerely hope we can also do them proud this year.

In times like these, support for community events such as ours from external bodies, the business sector, local authorities, and the public is more important than ever.

I am pleased to report in the last couple of weeks, Arts Council England have agreed to support the Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival for the ninth year, and Maxwells Chartered Accountants, Bridgwater and Taunton College and P Phillips have all become official sponsors.

We thank them all for their support and generosity in these difficult financial times.

Until the next time…

Dave Stokes
Publicity director
Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival