Westbury Carnival Will Not Go Ahead

By KimHerbing | Friday, February 03, 2012, 16:59

Plans Âto hold a Carnival in Westbury have ground to a halt, despite the efforts of two committees attempting to get the event off the ground.

Westbury Carnival

Town councillor Stephen Miles set up a Carnival committee in May 2010 with the dream of bringing the event back to Westbury, however the committee members were not committed enough, so Sue Alexander, who was originally part of Stephen's committee, set up a second committee a few months ago when she grew frustrated with what she saw as a lack of progress.

It was hoped a Carnival would take place in September 2011 and then moved to 2012, but both committees have now abandoned plans for the event due to lack to support. Neither Stephen or Sue have ruled out the idea of having the carnival in the future, but admit it will be an uphill battle.

Sue said, "I have closed our committee, we were getting so much flack for having two associations. It's a shame as I want it to go ahead, but I can't see the other committee fulfilling the plans and going ahead either."

Stephen said, "I will be doing nothing with the Carnival until 2013. With all the shenanigans we thought we'd leave it until 2013, so it's sleeping. There's a lot on this year anyway for 2012. I haven't completely given up, we'll just have to wait and see what happens, but the omens are not too good."

Although plans for a new Carnival were met with enthusiasm by many in the town, it appears both committees struggled to get enough dedicated volunteers on board to drive the event forward. There appears to have been some politics and conflicting views about the event but hopefully Westbury will see the carnival in the town one day.

Why do you think it is so difficult to organise a carnival in Westbury? Other towns hold them so what do you think the problem is here?

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Comments

My id is carnivalguy as I enjoy visiting carnivals which is why I was looking forward to one in Westbury. Not been involved in organising any.

By carnivalguy at 19:44 on 07/02/12
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As your name on here is 'carnivalguy' do you have experience in organising carnivals? Would you get involved in helping to organise Westbury carnival next time?

By KimHerbing at 13:21 on 07/02/12
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Why am I not surprised. Westbury is not great at organising events like this. The council is good at organising small events in the town but even these seem to be the same old same old, even the jubilee events these year are things the council usually organise for Westbury. If the committee organising the carnival teamed up with the council maybe the carnival would actually happen. There must be someone in Westbury that was involved in the carnival back in the 90's that would be able to help or at least advise what needs to be done to organise a carnival. Its not as simple as just getting people together to help, there are health and safety issues, policing, road closures,just to name a few. It would be great to have the carnival in Westbury but committees set up with a few people is just never going to work.

By carnivalguy at 19:28 on 05/02/12
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