The finishing touches are being made to a huge £14,000 carnival float which has been built in Burnham-On-Sea.
With just a few weeks to go until the Burnham Carnival on Monday November 9th, members of Hillview Juvenile Carnival Club are busily screwing in 12,500 light bulbs and applying a final coat of paint to their impressive 100ft-long float, which this year has a wizards theme and is called ‘Gee Wiz’.
Burnham-On-Sea.com was invited along for an exclusive first look at the float this week as the hive of activity behind the scenes continued.
The public will be able to see the float for themselves this Saturday (October 3rd) from 10am-5pm at the Bristol Bridge Inn when the club holds an open day.
Many of the group’s 16 child helpers and 26 adult volunteers will showing their work and there will also be an opportunity for new volunteers to come forward.
Design work on this year’s float began just a few days after last year’s carnival and the club’s Chairman, Mark Bishop, says there is still plenty of work to go.
“It’s been another great team effort this year, with volunteers of all ages and skills helping us. Each person has a very important part to play,” he told Burnham-On-Sea.com.
“The excitement is really starting to grow now,” added Mark. “The float is taking shape. We have a huge 500 KVA generator this year to give us even more power.”
“And we have also strengthened the chassis over the past year, but all this costs money. Fundraising has been a big part of our time this year.”
“We’ve held two Burnham street parties, collected at the Glastonbury Festival and the FolkFest, and held several other fundraisers to pull in enough money. It has been tough during a recession.”
The effort will all be worth it when the float shines out at the float’s first public performance, at Bridgwater Carnival on Friday November 6th.
A full preview of this year’s Burnham and Highbridge Carnival is available here.
