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Last night saw the first Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival since 2019, due to the Covid pandemic.

The large event has evolved from the celebrations held over the failure of the Gunpowder Plot, and this year saw just over 90 entries taking part in the Carnival - from single walking entries to the large 100ft long Carnival Carts (floats). Although towns in neighbouring counties hold illuminated night time Carnivals as well, the tradition is mostly confined to Somerset.


The Carnival was lead by the Jubilation entry, that represented Bridgwater Carnival at the 2022 Queens Platinum Jubilee parade in London:


1. IMG_0003_Bridgwater_05-11-2022 by Roger - Thanks for 2.5 Million Views, on Flickr

2. IMG_0007_Bridgwater_05-11-2022 by Roger - Thanks for 2.5 Million Views, on Flickr


Once night falls, the Carts are lit, the Carnival Club members take their places on the entries and they parade through the town.

3. IMG_0020_Bridgwater_05-11-2022 by Roger - Thanks for 2.5 Million Views, on Flickr

4. IMG_0082_Bridgwater_05-11-2022 by Roger - Thanks for 2.5 Million Views, on Flickr

5. IMG_0088_Bridgwater_05-11-2022 by Roger - Thanks for 2.5 Million Views, on Flickr

6. IMG_0098_Bridgwater_05-11-2022 by Roger - Thanks for 2.5 Million Views, on Flickr

7. IMG_0110_Bridgwater_05-11-2022 by Roger - Thanks for 2.5 Million Views, on Flickr

8. IMG_0129_Bridgwater_05-11-2022 by Roger - Thanks for 2.5 Million Views, on Flickr


At the Carnivals held over the weekends, crowds in excess of 100,000 line the route. The midweek ones will get crowds in the tens of thousands.


If anyone has had their interest piqued by this post, the dates for the remaining Carnivals are:

Monday 7 November - Burnham on Sea and Highbridge
Friday 11 November - Weston Super Mare
Saturday 12 November - North Petherton
Wednesday 16 November - Shepton Mallet
Friday 18 November - Wells City
Saturday 19 November - Glastonbury


Thanks for looking.

Roger

Like these,

pg1610 wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 06, 2022 1:32 pm

Like these,

Thank you.

Cracking images, thanks for posting.

Pune wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 06, 2022 5:11 pm

Cracking images, thanks for posting.

Thank you.

Hope to get more photos over the next couple of weeks.

Great stuff Rog, if but for the wedding on Saturday we would have loved to have been down.

Thanks Nick.

Always next year!

Hi Rog

Top ‘togging, matey

Well done

Paddy

Thanks Paddy.

Great set of pictures, although I live in Bridgwater due to other commitments missed Saturday's parade but hope to get to Shepton next Wednesday. Just a technical query did you use flash on these pictures, because there is such a light difference between the really bright lit areas and other parts of the cart that are not so well lit. People may see I called them carts rather than floats, floats float on water and carts go on the road. Bridgwater carnival has also been going on for so long the original entries were pulled by horses.

Thanks Alfie. I called them Carts in my post as well!

I used flash for my photos. I found a good spot along Bath Road, near the HPC accommodation blocks, but once the roads closed, a load of people set up camp in front of the barriers (several standing), so my field of view was limited to further away and possibly beyond the effective distance of the flashgun.

I hope to go the Pethy on Saturday, then Shepton, Wells and Glastonbury next week.