Well the weather started bad but from lunchtime on, there was no rain and that was good enough for me, and thousands others for that matter, the east car park was nearly full!! Less entries than last year (20) but one entry was made up of four vehicles, the Allin's Top Gear entry made up of three camper vans in the style of the Top Gear vehicles that were recently filmed at Hartland Quay and a film crew!

The Blue Ribbon Award for best float award went to "The Railway Children" which also scooped best local float and The Jamie Johns Memorial Trophy for most entertaining float!

The most successful walking group was Bollywood who scooped the Blue Ribbon and Most Entertaining walker’s awards! Other first in classes included Radio Caroline's "The boat that rocked" and Avatar! I have uploaded some photos kindly taken by Bob Seymour from Shoreline Photography.

A very high turnout of Floats (25) this year and  I have  had many comments about what a high standard they were this year. The Procession kicked of on time and even though we had such a large number of floats the procession went round smoothly. There appeared to be a space theme this year with  many of the prize winners celebrating the 40th anniversary on the Moon Landing and the recent findings on Mars. The weather was  fantastic which made for a good carnival and also kept the revelers in the village square until late, they were kept entertained by the Samba Bands Vaminos and Energia who gave an excellent performance. For those of us that were in the procession and did not get the opportunity to watch the carnival live, we had the opportunity to view it on the Kings Arm's large screen TV after the Landlord kindly recorded the event!  The walker numbers were down but what they lacked in quantity was made up for by the quality , one comment from a resident of Bridgwater was, "the walkers were of a quality expected at Bridgwater, and the carnival atmosphere was second to none" No trouble has been reported from the event and PC Tony Ellis was also impressed with the great atmosphere we had this year. Come midnight as you'd expect the streets were pretty messy but Torridge District Council cleaning team were out and about in the early hours and the place was spotless before most people had arisen, a big  thank you to those that were involved with the clean up!

 The monies raised, which go to 11 local groups such as the ATC and Cubs, have not yet been counted but early indications are showing we are well in excess of last year.