Plan to revive Chippenham carnival (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Plan to revive Chippenham carnival

1:53pm Thursday 17th July 2008

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Carnival fever will be hitting Chippenham in 2012 as the town hopes to welcome back the Chippenham Carnival after ten years.

With the success of carnivals in Calne and Wootton Bassett event organisers are keen to resurrect the Chippenham version to coincide with the London Olympics.

Heading up the project is Helen Baker from Frogwell and Neil and Corinna Parsons from Pewsham, who know what it takes to organise the carnival, as they were committee members for its last outing.

Mr Parsons said: "It seems like a long way off but it will take a lot of planning.

"We want to get people involved now and to start creating a buzz for the event.

"There is lots to organise, we definitely want a procession which means we have to get the roads closed and get things sorted out with the police."

Mr Parsons was sad when the previous Chippenham Carnival stopped but put it down to a shortage of people willing to help out. He said: "We had to stop because there were just four of us on the committee which wasn't enough to organise such a big event.

"The last one was great, we raised lots of money for charity but we had problems finding a site and sorting out the insurance.

"As well as the procession we had a fair, a fishing contest, a concert by Kentwood Choir and a circus came and taught people circus skills. There was loads going on."

The last carnival was able to raise money for charity and Mr Parsons hopes that can be repeated. He said: "We hope to raise money through collections as the parade makes its way through the town as well as producing a sponsored programme which will carry adverts.

"The printing is done for free by Octoprint so all the money we make from that can go to charity. We also hope to get the different events sponsored as well."

For more details call Neil Parsons on (01249) 660532.

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