THE evolution of digital technology has really helped to open up Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival to a whole new audience, both in the UK and around the world - writes Dave Stokes, publicity director for Bridgwater Carnival.

Video sharing websites such as YouTube and Vimeo, where users can upload, share and watch films, were first introduced in the mid noughties.

As a carnival committee, we were late to embrace the technology but, having done so, there is no doubt we have seen a massive increase in the exposure of our carnival.

One example is when we collaborated with popular YouTuber, Tom Scott, back in 2021.

Tom creates educational online films across a range of topics including history, geography, linguistics, science and technology, and we worked with him on a short film about the squibbing titled ‘The town where holding fireworks over your head is a tradition’.

This six-minute film was posted on Tom’s YouTube channel in November 2021 and it has since received an incredible 1,283,877 views, and over 85,000 likes.

Money simply cannot buy this kind of publicity and it is a collaboration and partnership which has served us well.

Unfortunately we can’t claim the film went viral - to do so requires it to be viewed five million times in the first week of release - but this example demonstrates just how powerful film sharing websites can be from a marketing and awareness perspective.

A simple search on YouTube for Bridgwater Carnival will reveal hundreds of film clips from our recent processions, all of which have been posted by members of the public.

We also have our very own YouTube channel (BGFCarnival) which contains over 700 official short film clips of our carnival, which can be viewed free.

Take a look, there are some wonderful memories of past carnival entries.

For those who would prefer to watch entire Bridgwater Carnival processions online, then please log into our official Vimeo channel ‘Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival’.

For just a small charge, you can watch carnival processions, from 1982 until the present day, in their full glory, on your television or other electronic devices.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to wish Sedgemoor FM’s ‘The Carnival Show’ a very happy tenth birthday.

The popular community radio show started back in July 2014, when the station was known as Access FM, and was first hosted by BBC Somerset presenter, Andy Bennett.

For the last six years, it has been fronted by well-known carnivalite, Bill Bevan, and the show continues to be a great listen every Wednesday evening between 7pm and 9pm.

Well done to everybody involved, and if you love carnival, then you will absolutely love this show.