Carnival is postponed to next year

ORGANISERS of the Newbury Carnival, which was scheduled to take place on Sunday July 14, have postponed the event until 2020 due to a lack of experienced volunteers on the committee.

Carnival chairman Sami Gabriel said: “The carnival is run by a group of volunteers who put a lot of time and effort into it.

“We are thankful for Greenham Trust who help with the funding, but financial support wasn’t going to cut it this year.”

He explained that a number of experienced volunteers had recently left the committee for a variety of personal reasons and the remaining committee members have not organised an event on this scale before.

Mr Gabriel said: “The parade we can do really easily and we already had 30 of the 55 parade slots filled.

“We have the experience for the parade, but we really wanted it to be a whole day out. We wanted to give the people of Newbury more than a one- to two-hour event.

“With the event in the park it makes it a family day out, having lunch in the park and listening to the music – a family event.”

Mr Gabriel said the carnival committee will continue to meet throughout the year to ensure the event now planned for July 2020 will be bigger and better.

Mr Gabriel added: “What we really need are people with experience with carnival event organisation.

“At the moment the committee are doing it, but no one really has any experience of doing it.”

The carnival takes place every two years, with the last one in 2017.

It generally attracts between 8,000 and 10,000 people and it is an important event in the Newbury calander.

The intended theme for this year’s carnival was Freedom and Openness of Expression.

Whether this theme will be extended to next year is not certain.

If you feel you would be able to volunteer for the 2020 carnival, contact Mr Gabriel on hello@newburycarnival.info