A popular West Cumbrian carnival is set to be much bigger than previous years thanks to a record number of float entries.
Over 400 people have signed up to attend this year’s Maryport Carnival – which will take place on Saturday July 13, starting at 11am in Fleming Square.
It’s an event that has been running in the town for over 70 years and brings together the community for a parade, funfair and other festivities.
Floats and performances of all kinds feature in the carnival parade and participants will compete to win one of eight categories including best comedy float, best float in parade and best entertainment on route.
The carnival is being run by a new committee this year after the previous group of organisers stepped down and put out a plea for people to take over the running of the event.
Gary Hampson, chairman of the carnival committee, said: “The past committee has set a very high bar and we’re hoping to reach that level for our first year.
“It brings together so many diverse people from all walks of life for one purpose and that’s to share a bit of fun and laughter by entertaining people from in and around the town and the visitors it attracts.
“But we know It’s going to be larger than it has been over the last couple of years based off the amount of application forms we’ve had.”
New float categories and judges have also been added this year as part of the new carnival committee’s vision for the event.
Gary said: “We’ve been trying to move the carnival forward since last year’s event with various fundraising events throughout the year.
“We’ve had various pubs and organisations get on board to help us raise money to help support what we’re wanting to do this year.
“We’re recreating the categories to include some of the older, traditional categories from that larger carnival that the town used to be very renowned for.
“With the judging we’ve also brought back a tradition and increased the judging panel from around four or six judges to 14.”
The day will start at 11am in Fleming Square before the main parade begins at 1pm. It will then move to High Street, Wood Street, Netherhall Corner, Curzon Street, Senhouse Street and will finish at Shipping Brow.
Judging will take place at 12pm at Fleming Square and awards will be handed out to the winners of each category.
Judges will include the Maryport Round Table Chair as well as members from 41 Club, Maryport Rescue, volunteer groups, the fire service and committee members from Seaton and Flimby Carnival.
Gary added: “The floats do take people a lot of time and effort, I know the lasses at the Butchers Arms have put in about 10 or 12 weeks of work to their costume and float design.
“There is a bit of nerves before it goes ahead, because it’s the first outing for the committee and it’s all brand new for them organising an event for the first time.
“But it’s also an exciting time. One of the town’s largest events is just about here, so waking up on that morning and seeing a big amount of people flocking to the streets, that will be when we know we’ve done it right.”
Alongside the funfair – which will take place near the Wave Center – adults will also be able to continue the festivities at some pubs in the town, where live music will go ahead.
