Devizes carnival £90,000 in the black (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Devizes carnival £90,000 in the black

8:52am Thursday 26th November 2009

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This year’s Devizes Carnival was the most expensive yet, costing the best part of £90,000 to mount, the carnival AGM heard on Thursday evening.

But it attracted an income of £95,000, leaving the surplus of more than £5,000 for next year’s event.

Carnival committee chairman Ian Hopkins explained that most of the money was spent on the tenth August Bank Holiday Monday street festival, which cost more than £61,000 to put on.

But with funding from the Arts Council, Devizes Town Council, Kennet District Council and Wiltshire Council, the grant aid for this year totalled £57,000.

Mr Hopkins said: “This is a substantial sum of money for an organisation of our size and recognises the value of our carnival workshops and the street festival.”

The carnival’s artistic director, Dave Buxton, who ten years ago founded the street festival with Mr Hopkins, said: “It is now one of the biggest in the South West. The big top street acts all over Europe are now beginning to talk to each other about Devizes.”

A total of £3,000 was shared out to the following good causes: the Air Training Corps, Devizes Link, Contact a Family, Devizes Pre-school, the Food Bank, Friends of Bradbury Manor, the Wednesday Club, the Budo Club, Devizes PHAB, First Stages youth theatre, the Lighthouse Centre mother and toddler group, Arts Together, Raynet and the Mayor’s Appeal.

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