I ABSOLUTELY love this time of the year.

The nights start drawing in, it begins to get a little cooler and leaves gently fall from the trees.

And as the fun of the Bridgwater Fair fades for another year, it heralds the beginning of carnival celebrations in the town with the start of the annual carnival concerts.

It is exactly 140 years since the first-ever carnival concert was held, and this week has seen the start of the 2023 show at Bridgwater Town Hall.

The popular concerts run until Saturday, October 14, and over 600 performers are taking part in the four-hour show which is being held for 12 nights.

These performers consist of 26 different acts - 12 x carnival clubs, two x dance troupes, and 12 front of curtain acts.

Following feedback from the public, this year we introduced an enhanced online booking service for purchasing concert tickets where specific seats could be purchased for preferred nights from our website.

This has proved very successful, and ticket sales have gone really well.

The small amount of tickets that are left are selling fast and can still be purchased from the Town Hall box office on performance nights, from the Carnival Centre or via www.bridgwatercarnival.org.uk/carnival-concert-tickets.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all carnival clubs, dance troupes, and front of curtain acts who are appearing at this year’s carnival concerts the very best of luck.

People who have the courage and stamina to perform and entertain on a stage have my utmost admiration and respect.

As I have previously admitted in these pages, the thought of performing on a stage absolutely terrifies me, and I take my hat off to everyone with the courage and confidence to do so.

After the concert fortnight finishes, our attention and focus turns to the carnival procession, which is just under five weeks away on Saturday, November 4.

We now have just a very small number of grandstand tickets and hospitality tickets left, so if you would like to buy one, I advise you to do so now.

Grandstand seats cost £28 and hospitality seats cost £70, and again these can be purchased from our official website (https://www.bridgwatercarnival.org.uk/shop/) or from the carnival centre.

Every year we encourage and welcome feedback from the public on what would make our carnival experience even better, and I mentioned earlier the changes we made to our concert ticket online booking system as a result of feedback we were given last year.

Another enhancement we have made for 2023 following public feedback is the introduction of a dedicated and official viewing area on the procession route for wheelchair users.

Spaces are limited, and to book a reservation or for further information, please email disabled.viewing@bridgwatercarnival.org.uk.

Until the next time,

Dave Stokes
Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival