The final finishing touches are being made to a £14,000 monster-sized carnival float which has been built entirely in Burnham-On-Sea.
With just a few weeks to go until the Highbridge and Burnham Carnival on Monday November 10th, 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 the theme ‘Jester’s Parade’.
Burnham-On-Sea.com was invited along for an exclusive first look at the float this week – and to see the whir of activity underway behind the scenes to make sure everything gets completed on time.
Design work on the float began immediately after last year’s carnival and, as the club’s Chairman, Mark Bishop told us, there is still plenty of work to go.
“Although we’ve been working on this float for a full year now, there are always plenty of jobs to do right up until the last minute.”
“It’s a great team effort – we have volunteers of all ages and skills helping us – and everyone has an important part to play,” he said.
“It’s been a busier year than normal because we had to buy a new towing tractor and move the cab to the front of the vehicle which was a mammoth engineering task. I can’t praise our engineer Duncan Fritx-Brittonn enough.”
“The excitement is really starting to grow now,” said Mark. “The float is taking shape every day and we have high hopes of repeating our success of last year.”
The float’s first public unveiling will be the Bridgwater Carnival on Friday November 7th, which will mark the culmination of all the hard work by the club’s sixteen builders and numerous fundraisers.
Among the team – pictured on the right – are 22 children who will be dancing on the float each night.
“And spare a thought for our costume designers who are currently putting the finishing touches to the clothes and sewing on 500 bells to the outfits!” added Mark.
The float has a new 400 KVA power generator this year, which will be powerful enough to light up a whole housing estate!
The float itself is 98 feet long, 16.6ft high and 10ft wide and therefore clearly needs a large space to be constructed. “We’re very fortunate to have the strong support of the Bristol Bridge Inn and are very grateful to them for giving us space on their property,” said Mark.
He added that this year’s float will be dedicated to Hillary Ward and Paul Plume, two Hillview members who are seriously ill. “Our thoughts are with them and we hope that by dedicating the float to them, it will give them a boost.”
Thousands of pounds have been raised from numerous fundraising events throughout the year in difficult financial conditions to ensure that the very best float is turned out. “It has been a very tough year,” said Mark. “Our diesel costs have doubled and material costs are higher, so we’ve had to focus even more efforts on fundraising this year than normal.”
The group has high hopes of scooping awards on this year’s carnival circuit. A full preview of this year’s Burnham and Highbridge Carnival is available here.
Felicity and Sophie Nicholson busy at work painting one of the ten huge jesters on the carnival float
Aron Whiting testing the extensive electronics on the float
Roger Cross and one of the many painters at work on the float this week
Two of the carnival float’s dancers – Charlotte Bishop and Shopie Butt – inspecting the float this week
Electrician Matt Lewis dealing with several of the 12,500 lights on the float
