As the curtain falls on another highly successful carnival season, it seems as good a time as any to reflect on the positive benefits our amazing organisation brings to our town and our community every year.

The town’s social calendar is strewn with fund-raising events staged by our local carnival clubs, all of which are easily accessible and available for everyone to enjoy.  Everything from concerts to cabarets, fetes to bingo, raffles to tombolas, feature regularly throughout the year. 

All these activities, and many more besides, generate vital income for clubs who need to raise considerable amounts every year in order to create the high standard of entries which we have all come to expect. 

At the same time of course, businesses in and around the town benefit immensely since what is raised locally is also spent locally on the extensive range of materials required to build carnival carts. 

Carnival certainly brings a boost to the local economy which is further expanded when the carnival comes to town in November.  For it is then that the hospitality and retail industries see a massive increase in trade at a time which many would consider to be a quiet period.

The staging of the annual ‘Old Folks Show’ gives clubs the opportunity to thank the town’s senior citizens for the support they have given carnival over the years.  The three-night show also gives new club members the chance to perform on the Town Hall stage, many for the first time, giving them a taste of what is to come at the Carnival Concerts later in the year.

Talking of which, the Concerts are indeed a remarkable piece of theatre. The talent in this town is absolutely amazing and yet, very few of the cast of over 600 will have received any training in singing, dancing or performing.  It is to their immense credit that they regularly produce polished, professional performances which would grace any theatre stage in the country.

Carnival gives ordinary, everyday folk the chance to display their hidden talents and, without a doubt, many towns are envious of the shows we stage, here in Bridgwater, every October.

What then of the parade itself?  Can there be any other social, voluntary organisation anywhere which brings people together, from all walks of life, to hone their skills to create such mesmerising, outstanding carnival carts which are beyond imagination and ingenuity?  Sometimes we forget the hours and hours of work which goes into building these immense structures. 

We really must thank everyone involved for giving up their time so freely, providing so much pleasure to our vast carnival audiences who travel far and wide to see one of the greatest carnivals in the world.  I know that club members and their helpers take great pride in their work, and I am so proud, as I am sure you are, that we have such a great, long-standing tradition in Bridgwater – truly the Home of Carnival.