Chairman Jason Baker started proceedings by welcoming everyone.
He then continued “Last year’s carnival was a huge success, and we were proud to be one of the 4 towns that brought Carnival back to our streets last year. We tried a few new things with the addition of the Street Fayre which proved to be a huge success and had over 50 stalls stretching from one end of Holyrood street to the other and included lots of live music and entertainment. The evening event which we originally saw as a small walking parade quickly grew into a carnival with over 50 entries and was enjoyed by thousands of spectators, I think you will agree that there were some innovative entries that wowed us all.”
“I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you and well done to all the committee who have worked tirelessly throughout the year to put on this event and for all the extra work that the covid restrictions brought.”
“There is much that goes on behind the scenes that no one sees, and I think they all deserve a huge round of applause.”
“We decided last year to pay everyone that entered appearance money rather than prize money so that everyone received funds to help towards the costs of their entries, so far, we have given £2688.00 and tonight we will be giving a further £3230.34 away”
Making a total of £5918.34 going to local groups, carnival clubs and charitable organisations.
“We have again decided to split all the money we give away into sections, which represent how the money was collected by the committee.”
“The groups that we have decided on are
- Schools selling Quality Carnival Merchandise
- Groups or individuals who collected at the carnival
- Groups that applied for grants
- Groups that collected with Christmas Float
“The emergency services play a huge role in Carnival, the event could not take place without their help and cooperation. A special thank you to the fire brigade, First Responders & St Johns who take part in the procession as well as providing emergency assistance throughout the event”
“There are lots of people that help us behind the scenes, but we would like to give a special thank you to Tesco for all the support the give is throughout the year especially Nicky.”
“This year we were overwhelmed with applications and decided to try and help as many groups as we could focusing on those involved in our carnival.”
The groups were then invited to receive their grants and give a speech about how the grant money would be spent.
The groups were then invited into the stage for a group photo
Mr Baker then wrapped up the event by saying
“That concludes our evening and I thank you all for attending this evening and thank you to our Carnival royalty for handing out the cheques.”
“I wish you all a successful carnival year and a safe journey home and don’t forget that it is our AGM on Sunday 13th at 7pm”