And, on behalf of all the Newbury Carnival 2011 Team, here’s the inimitable Bette Midler to say it …

Here is this year’s video of Newbury Carnival, which includes photographs taken by Chris Jackson, our official photographer, Paul Roberts, the Carnival Photography Competition winner (see below) and Philippa Harper and Andrew Cooper from the Carnival Team.

To maximise your viewing and listening pleasure click the ‘full screen’ icon at the bottom right and make sure you can hear the music. Enjoy!

The winner of this year’s Newbury Carnival Photography Competition is Paul Roberts of Thatcham.  Paul won the Carnival’s £100 prize for his picture of Sonny & Rainbow, the clowns, on their wacky bicycle in the Carnival Parade. Newbury Camera Club organised the competition and decided on the prize winners. The winning photograph is shown above.  Many other photos of this year’s and previous events may be viewed at the Carnival’s online gallery here.  All the entries for the photo competition may be viewed at the Flickr group here.

The judges felt that the winning picture was very well composed and captured the spirit of the carnival. Novice competitor Paul said:

‘Wow! I am overwhelmed to have won – this is the first ever photographic competition that I have entered! I spent most of the day in Newbury and had a great time taking photographs. I’d recently got a new camera and was keen to use it. The lighting conditions were perfect and the atmosphere of the Carnival was terrific with smiling faces all around.

I positioned myself along Northcroft Street for the parade and for a photographer the joy of the procession is that your subject comes to you. By staying in the same place I was able to photograph most of the procession along with views of the crowd. It was brilliant – it seemed no matter where I pointed my camera there was a shot to be had and I pressed the shutter many times during the day.

Thank you to the judges for selecting my image and thanks again to Newbury Camera Club for organising the competition – the conditions on the day were absolutely perfect for my camera and I had a most enjoyable day of photography.’

This year’s competition reflected the success of the Carnival and the fact that people from all over the district come to Newbury to enjoy the event. More than 250 photos were entered  - and with digital cameras now so effective, the quality of the pictures was exceptional.

Richard Markham of Newbury was runner up with this excellent photograph.

Our official photographs of Newbury Carnival 2011 will be arriving soon.  Meanwhile you can find great photos on the Newbury Sound and Newbury Today websites.

We’re grateful to Martin Scott from Companion Computers for making the following photographs available to all.  Follow the link to see more:

http://www.CompanionComputers.co.uk/NewburyCarnivalPhotos-Set1

And don’t forget our photography competition.  £100 and £50 prizes are available and you can submit entries until midnight on 31st July.  Full details here.

This time it is congratulations to Chris Winchester of Newbury, who won the raffle prize at the Carnival Fete: a carriage drive plus meal and a bottle of wine at The Cottage Inn, Bucklebury.

The horse and carriage for this is kindly supplied by Celebration Carriages, who did such a wonderful job of carrying our Carnival Queen and her attendant.  Thanks to all involved with the raffle.

And well done, Chris!

All the entries in this year’s Carnival Parade were wonderful!  The judges had an extremely difficult task choosing between them.  Congratulations to the eventual winners:

Best Business Entry – Newbury Town Council : At The End Of The Rainbow

Best Community Entry - Royal British Legion : The Golden Nugget Saloon

Best Individual /Small Group Entry – Peter Bosley : The Keystone Cops

Best Schools Entry – Speenhamland Primary School : Ancient Greek Olympians

Best Walking Entry – Newbury District 0f Girl Guiding UK : The Golden Age of Guiding

Best Youth Group Entry – KICiN (Kids Inclusive Club in Newbury) : Countries of the Olympics

Best Music / Dance Entry – Nomads Musical Theatre : Our House

Most Creative Entry – The Winchcombe School : Tutankhamun and the Egyptians

And special congratulations to:

The overall winner of Newbury Carnival 2011 -

SPEENHAMLAND PRIMARY SCHOOL

Once again, we are extremely grateful to the companies who sponsored this year’s awards and helped to support this community event.

Welcome to Newbury Carnival 2011!

With hundreds of people taking part in a parade of over 60 entries and more than 100 stalls in Northcroft Park, thousands of people will be coming into Newbury to join the fun.

Information about parking and road closures in Newbury on Sunday is here.

Everything kicks off with the opening of Newbury Carnival at 12 noon by The King (aka Elvis) and Picnic in the Park which will be in Northcroft Park (opposite Northcroft Leisure centre). There is a full programme of entertainment throughout the afternoon with an ‘intermission’ during the Carnival Parade. The full programme of arena performances is here.

The Carnival Parade is at 2.00pm and will take about an hour to pass through the town centre (see the map here). We have a huge range of entries this year: schools; local clubs; street entertainers, Harley Davidsons, the Devizes Male Majorwrecks (a sight not to be missed!), marching band, dancers and much more.   A full list of entries is here.

The Funfair and Fete continues until 6.00pm offering a whole six hours of free entertainment for you and an afternoon of fun which you really won’t want to miss.

Don’t forget our photographic competition, with cash prizes of up to £100; and do check back here and follow us on Twitter for regular updates.

Lastly, here’s Newbury’s Town Crier, Brian Sylvester, announcing the Carnival to shoppers in Newbury on Saturday morning. You’ll find a video of Newbury Carnival 2009 here.

Good luck to all participants and see you all there!

In keeping with the theme of Newbury Carnival 2011, we are delighted to welcome a number of participants to this year’s Parade who are enjoying golden anniversaries.

We would like to extend our very best wishes to Anne and Jim Pocock and to Beatie and David Pawley, both couples who are celebrating their Golden Wedding Anniversaries this year.  Congratulations to you all from everyone at Newbury Carnival!

We are also thrilled that entry no.35, Newbury District of Girl Guiding UK, will include a vintage car carrying members of Newbury Trefoil Guild, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.  With Rainbows, Brownies and Guides of all ages taking part, this will certainly be a practical illustration of ‘The Golden Age of Guiding’.

Elly Bridger-Wilkinson

Listen to Elly Bridger-Wilkinson explain all to BBC Radio Berkshire this morning.

Ellie talking to BBC Radio Berkshire

And here’s another interview, starting with members of the Young Corn Exchange talking about their entry ‘Dantopia’.

Young Corn Exchange