Newbury Carnival Queen Elly Bridger-Wilkinson was a guest of honour at Newbury Racecourse on Saturday, where she gave a live interview to Jonny Saunders, sports presenter of BBC Radio 2.

Thanks, Elly, for telling everyone about the great day to be had in Newbury on Sunday 10th July!

Here’s Elly with another guest of Newbury Racecourse, Harry the Horse.

Can you spare some time to help West Berkshire Minority Ethnic Forum (WBMEF) prepare their Carnival Parade entry? They want to have an outline of the Taj Mahal on their float, but need someone to help the draw the shape and cut it out from board.

Waheeda Soomro, of the WBMEF, said:

“We’d love to hear from anyone who could help us with this. We entered the carnival for the first time in 2009 [the last Newbury Carnival] and it was great fun, working together on our float. We would be very grateful to anyone who can join us to work on this. We’ll provide all the materials that are needed.”

If you think you can help, drop us a line at newburycarnival@gmail.com and we’ll pass on your message to Waheeda.

Many of the organisations entering the Carnival Parade or running at stall at the Carnival Fete will be collecting money for their own causes, which is fantastic and it is always wonderful to see people giving so generously on Carnival day.  But other groups and individuals often take part without any particular affiliation and are happy to help us raise money for any good cause.  For this reason, we usually have a ‘nominated charity’ which receives a contribution from us at the end of each Carnival.

We are now looking for a local organisation to be our nominated charity for 2011. If you would like to be considered for this and will be able to take part in this year’s parade, we would like to hear from you.  Please send us an email with brief details about your organisation, what you do and how you think you could help to make Newbury Carnival 2011 another successful event for the town. The closing date for applications is Friday 6th May.

We’re thrilled to have been included in the list of recipients for the spring round of grants from the Greenham Common Trust.  Our grant of £5,000 will make tremendous difference as we move into the last few months of planning and preparations for Newbury Carnival 2011.  Bryan Harper, our Chairman, had this to say:

“This award makes a real difference to us and allows us to plan with confidence an event that takes months of planning.  We are so grateful to the Greenham Common Trust for their support that will touch so many people in our local community.  This really is great news!”

Lots of other local businesses have also offered some financial backing or support in kind.  Follow the link to our ‘Sponsors and supporters’ and you’ll see that all sectors of the community have contributed, including businesses large and small.  Bryan added:

“This is a great list of organisations and companies that want to be involved and be part of helping make Newbury Carnival 2011 a great event.  In these difficult times it is all credit to those companies who have seen fit to help us with all manner of things.  We are grateful to each and every one of them.”

If you, too, would like to play a part in Newbury’s biggest community event, we would be delighted to hear from you.  Please email us at newburycarnival@gmail.com and we’ll be in touch soon.

Now that Newbury Carnival is such a big event, we need a lot of stewards.  These are the people who assist with road closures and keeping the crowds safe, both along the route of the Carnival Parade, through the town centre, and at the Carnival Fete in Northcroft Park.

If you are not taking part in the Parade yourself, can you spare a few hours on Carnival day to help with this, please?

Most stewards will be needed between about 12.30pm and 3.30pm on Sunday 10th July.  You must be 18 years of age or over but no previous experience is necessary.  A briefing will be given on the day, which will fully explain your duties and requirements.  All stewards work in pairs and high visibility jackets are provided.

If you think you can help, please fill out your details on our Volunteer! page.

And please pass on this request to anyone else you think might be able to help in this way to make Newbury Carnival 2011 another great day.

Thank you.

We seem to be receiving completed Parade entries earlier than ever this year, which is fantastic!  Here is our list of entries to date.

As you will see, not everyone has decided on the theme of their entry yet, which is fine – you’ve still got plenty of time to think about what will catch the judges’ attention and give you the best chance of winning one of our £100 cash prizes.

We know that there are lots of other groups and organisations out there who intend to take part but haven’t yet got around to sorting out your entry forms.  It looks like 2011 could be set for another record-breaking year and we look forward to more entries soon.

Yes, it’s the moment you’ve been waiting for, assuming the moment in question is the one in which we announce that entry for our Carnival Parade on Sunday 10th July 2011 is officially open.

We’ve just added links to this year’s Newbury Carnival entry forms, along with our list of the top ten reasons for taking part in the Carnival Parade.  So get clicking (here) right now and tell all your friends/colleagues/fellow community group members/parents’ association committee members and everyone else, right now, if you’d like to book a place in the parade.  Alternatively enter as a family or even on your own.  It’s almost as if there are no good reasons for not entering, isn’t it?

Congratulations to Elly Bridger-Wilkinson, who was crowned Newbury Carnival Queen 2011 earlier this evening at the festive celebrations in Newbury town centre.  Elly (above left) who was the Carnival Queen’s attendant in 2009, attended John Rankin and St Bart’s Schools, before starting her degree course at Oxford University earlier this term, where she is studying history.  Pictured here with Elly is the Mayor of Newbury, Ian Grose, and Kelly Edmond, a student at Park House School, who will be Elly’s attendant for Newbury Carnival 2011.

Come and join the celebrations, as the Newbury Carnival Queen for 2011 is crowned on Friday 26th November.

The crowning ceremony will take place at 5:00pm in the Market Place, as part of Newbury’s count down to Christmas.

Live entertainment, hot food and roasted chestnuts will be available in the Market Place from 4:00pm onwards, with the big Christmas lights switch-on taking place at 5:30pm.

We’ll look forward to seeing you there!