Cromer Carnival 2011 - 2012

Welcome to the Cromer Carnival web site.

and on to 2012!

You will see from our events page that work is already underway, organising events for next year. Please note that these dates maybe subject to change, so keep watching, if there is something in particular you would like to attend!

Now how do you prepare for three buses to turn up at a Fancy Dress dance! Eight hundred people up at the marquee, all enjoying themselves, as far as I could see. The usual difficulties trying to take photographs but hopefully you're there somewhere on the photos page or you managed to see the other on-site photographer last night. For copies of photos on the Carnival website, call at Photosprint in Hamilton Road.

Congratulations to the overall winners with the 'Rollercoaster'. With one lady with a false head, the roller coasters with false legs, who can say what's real and what isn't. A quick 'Viva' for the Chilean miners and what a lot of 'Gnomers'. The gruesome and the grizzly, the minimalist costumes and the cardboard creations. A great turnout with huge creativity.

A quick note to say congratulations to all those who turned out for the torchlit parade on Thursday evening - and had to stand around in the rain waiting for it to start. A very special thanks to the Romford band who couldn't carry umbrellas as they played!

Well done to those who provided the lit-up floats. You'd clearly got the electrics well waterproofed and those purple lit sails of the galleon really made quite an effect.

We were photographing at the picnic on Evington Lawns in the afternoon, with the gentle sound of a whole variety of drums carrying around that area of the town. Quite a set-up to have to move round to various locations but much enjoyed by all those who cold have go go for themselves!

Plenty of active toys to try out for the young carnival followers at the picnic - and a few mums were joining in with the skipping and the hoops as well. A noticeable lack of dads involved with physical activity!

Donkey rides and Mr Punch, courtesy of Dave Doughnut, all added to the occasion, with a full afternoon of activities just coming to a conclusion as the rain decided to dampen things down a bit. However, the appropriate wet weather kit was collected and as I've mentioned above, we were all back out for the evening parade.

On Wednesday evening, another great parade come and gone. Hope you saw the elephant on its way round - an awful lot of work had obviously gone into that entry and I think (just a personal opinion!) a justified overall winner. I'm not sure either that I would fancy walking all the way round in the parade, as the front or back legs!

There's a full set of photos - well, nearly a full set of photos - on the site now. Apologies for anyone who was missed, but it does get a bit confusing at the judging arena and difficult to get everybody together on some of the floats. Intrigued by Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but such a simple and effective idea to produce the movement for the Dwarfs.

Liked the waving dogs paw on the lifeboat float - 'Monte' from the lifeboat museum. Several floats with circuses - always colourful and effective. Congratulations to the parish church for their win in that class. Made the mistake of walking round the back of the huge pirate ship when its amplifiers were going full blast - pardon, did you say something!

Very impressive how Tony Nelson, the Sheringham town crier, managed to appear at several different locations in the parade - but at least he doffs his hat to the participants from Cromer. Runton Road through to Church Street packed with people - as many if not more than ever. Lots of houses around town decorated with bunting - perhaps something to be encouraged for future years!

We may live in an age of some very sophisticated social media that enables us to send these pictures to friends and family around the world - but us humans seem to be able to get out and enjoy ourselves at home in a pretty simpe way! Well done to everyone who contributed to a great event!

Now one query from earlier in the day, in case you weren't close enough to hear the commentary. Red 10, Graham, the Squadron Leader who provides the commentary for the Red Arrows, explained that they had had one aircraft that morning which had proved to be faulty and the only spare happened to be black and didn't have the kit needed to generate smoke. They were hoping to have the other red aircraft ready for the afternoon show at Weymouth. In the meantime, you may have captured a unique picture of the Black and Red Arrows! (the really ancient ones amongst us will remember the black Hawker Hunters that used to make up the RAF display team.) Hope you enjoyed all the shows - dogs, motorcylists and of course very special thanks to the Romford band.

One of the events of the Carnival that's enjoyed by many but not seen by most is the visit of the 'Royal Family' to some of the hospitals and care homes in the town. Lucy and her companions set off soon after 10am on Tuesday
to Halsey House, then to Benjamin Court and finally to Cromer hospital.

The team had a wonderful time meeting the residents. At Halsey House there was a gathering in one of the day rooms and a visit to the art room, before looking in at one of the special care areas. Benjamin Court had laid on not one but two parties, with sherry and cake, a specail raffle and the regular competition to guess the colour of Miss Cromer's dress this year.

It's a wonderful occasion, with many of those being visited in their eighties and nineties. There are some who grew up and spent all their lives in the area, with their own memories of carnival week in years gone by and there are those who grew up in other parts of the country but are spending their latter years being cared for in the Cromer community.

Up at the field it was children's day for the Tuesday, with lots of activities for all the family and the various displays in the arena. Wonderful to see back this year our friends from the Romford Marching Band, sounding as good if not better than ever.

For those who remember the Waiters and Waitresses competition from last year, when it wasn't possible to have it on the prom, today was just a little different.

A tremendous turnout, with four heats necessary to find the finalists for the waitresses. Competition as keen as ever - and just the occasional dry tray, such as you'd like for your service at the hotels and restaurants.

Splendid to have an entry from each of the three Mackenzie hotels, as well as all those in Cromer itself. Well done to all the competitors - and the first time we've had an entrant from the hospital dining room. Definitely the best dressed!

A lovely carnival service on Sunday with a full church. Then everyone was off down to the pier forecourt for the crowning ceremony. It became just a touch chillier and then warmed up again. The weather was on our side and for the afternoon it was off up to the carnival field where everything was in full swing.

The 'Bonny Babies' contest proved extremely popular once again. 84 entries! We hope we managed to take a photo of all those who wanted a picture taken. And how do you judge a 'bonny baby' competition? Every mum and dad quite rightly knows their baby is the bonniest of all! But it's very popular and all taking part seemed to enjoy themselves. Lots of the youngsters have clearly twigged what to do when the camera is pointed at them. Anyway, we've put the 'Bonnies' into a separate section on the photo page, given that there were so many of them.

Absurd - and traditional - volunteers continue to step forward for the 'knobbly knees' competition. And you thought such events died out years ago in the earlier times of the holiday camps. Well, whilst contestants keep rolling up their trousers, we'lll keep testing the kneecaps. Congratulations to Dennis who has entered several times over the last few years - and finally walked away with the first prize!
Glamourous grannies and then the children's fancy dress concluded the afternoon. Perhaps it is a bit passe for the 10-14 age group - but the 'Knave of Hearts' was a great costume - though Paul from 'Seaside Special' nearly made off with the tarts. No shortage of creativeness across the other classes and we hope you like our shot of Andy the dancer surrounded by jellyfish!

Lots of thanks to everyone who helped make the day such a success.

We'll keep a bit of information on here from day one, the Saturday.

You come all the way from Australia to visit Cromer Carnival and then it drizzles on you - but there's no shortage of a smile under the umbrella!

Entry to the field is free all day Saturday, Sunday and Monday. There are fairground rides and plenty of food and drink stalls in operation. The car booters were all under way early on Saturday morning and whilst the covers had been on standby, they're not needed at the moment.

The craft stalls, with a very wide range of products were all inside the main marquee, so plenty to see there. Photographs, glass, fashions, carvings, artwork, they were all available from the craft stalls. We've put up a selection a selection of photos from inside the marquee up on the 'Photos 2011' button.

Lunchtime saw the arrival of various groups of classic and modern motorcycles, so look in if that's you thing.

We have been asked to publish the answers for the Car Treasure Hunt, which was held on Saturday afternoon and these are on the 'Winners 2011' page.

You can check the timings on the events button on the side of this page. Alternatively look in at many of the shops in town which have Carnival programmes available - put a donation in the box and help yourself to the full listing for the week.

If you're checking ahead in the programme, watch out for some of the dates in the programme. A few errrors have crept in, for which our apologies, but we're sure you can figure out if a slip-up has been made.

There's plenty on all week. As well as the events organised by the carnival team, the clubs and pubs around town also arrange special music and events for the week, so check out the options you have there.

We are also on Facebook and Twitter! Just use the buttons at the top right of this page to share on your pages and use the links here to join us and help spread the news.

'Like' our Facebook page: Cromer Carnival Official and follow us on Twitter: @CromerCarnival

Andreas Yiasimi's live performance at the crowning of our Carnival Queen last year can be seen at North Norfolk TV. Click to Carnival rock!

Look in at North Norfolk TV for an extract from last year's fireworks display, to see what you missed, if you didn't catch the display. Our thanks to Clive and his team for another amazing show.

On the website, we have been looking back with a set of photos from Carnival 1980. George Patterson was our photographer then and we have digitised a set of his prints for you to see.

Click this link for more information about Cromer and if you have a particular interest in the history and heritage of the town, you might want to look in at the Cromer Dictionary site.