Cromer Carnival 2009 - 40 years on!
Welcome to the Cromer Carnival web site.
A successful afternoon on Thursday for the transfer of the 'Party' to Evington Lawns and a great parade up to the field in the evening for the fireworks. Not quite sure what happened to the 40 Chinese lanterns being set off to mark the anniversary but a small blaze on the cliff which required the attention of the fire brigade added to the event. Congratulations to Clive, Mr Fireworks, for a great show. Photographs can't really convey the event but we've put some on the site anyway.
The picture of the knobbly knees are on the photo site for a bit of fun so I was somewhat surprised to hear from Martin at Photosprint that someone had been in to buy a print. How much stranger can this world become?
A terrific Carnival day on Wednesday - as long as you could occasionally find some shade. A real swelter all day, topped off by a great parade in the evening.
The Red Arrows arriving at 11.30am caused a bit of a panic in the morning as drivers tried to find parking spaces but it all worked out in the end. Of course the Arrows put on a great show with lots of folk commenting that it seemed to be longer than usual - though I think its probably ust a reflection of the great value they offer. Anway, pictures throughout the day are now up on the web site so click the 'Photos 2009' button on the left if you want to look in. The number of visitors to the web site is even more phenomenal this year - do go along and order photos you'd like from Photosprint as that's one part of the operation that helps us pay for providing this service.
Wonderful to see half of the previous Carnival Queens from the last 40 years come and join in for the day. It was particuarly impressive that when the first of the hold-ups in this years parade happened, with one of the cars carrying the Queens broke down, the girls were out and pushing to get things under way again!
There's a selection of the pictures up in the window at Merchants' Place but that's only a relatively small group; the web site has all the pictures. You can also enjoy the two rolling screens in town, one above the door at Merchants' Place and the other courtesy of Icarus Hines. If you're standing in the queue at his shop, you won't be able to miss the huge sceen on the far wall. 'George' of course made an appearance at the Fancy Dress on sunday.
We didn't get round to as many places as we'd have liked for photos on Tuesday, so sorry if we missed you out. The children's day is proving to be a huge success, especially now that a number of the acts in the arena encourage the the youngsters to come in and get a bit closer to the action!
What a glorious and enjoyable day on the Sunday, from a gathering of past committee members from the past 40 years for the morning service at the parish church and the crowning ceremony through to the afternoon competitions at the carnival field.
The high spot of Sunday (if you believe this, it's a bit worrying) was the revived 'knobbly knees' competition. No 'Mastermind' or 'University Challenge' for north Norfolk, we fight out our standings through more basic human attributes. If you think you can take it, you can see the photographs amongst the selection for the day now up on the 'Photos 2009' button on the left.
Many congratulations to Tony and Sandra Shipp, presented with a silver salver in recognition of the 25 years Tony has served as Chairman of the organisiation that pulls the carnival together and the 25 years that Sandra has supported him in that activity.
Pictures from the Car Boot sale on Saturday morning are on the site.
Click the 'Photos 2009' button on the left.
Sorry about the news for Friday night - but once again the hottest tickets in town have already sold out. If you're desperate to appear in Fancy Dress this week and have missed out on the Friday tickets, how about joining the parade in costume on Wednesday evening. Ideal for a bunch of exhibitionists!
If you're looking for photos of the Raft Race on 5th July, go to the Photos 2009 button in the left hand column. Prints available as usual from Photosprint, Hamilton Road.
It's a special year this year - 40 unbroken years of the Carnival in Cromer. Yes, there were earlier carnivals, but this series reaches this anniversary - and there are still some people helping on the team who were there that age ago!
We'll leave the entry fomr for the parade in place on the site. After all, you may already be planning for next year. So take the chance to download a parade entry form from here - Parade Entry Form (250.1Kb)
On the web site we've been looking back with a set of photos from Carnival 1980. George Patterson was our photographer then and we're digitising a set of his prints.