If you're visiting North Somerset, there are lots of unique things to see, such as Cheddar Gorge (not strictly "North" Somerset but very close), the beach at Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon's Pier and everything Bristol has to offer, including Banksy's world famous street art.
But if you're visiting in November - you have to go to a carnival! I don't think there's anything quite like it anywhere else in the world - in fact, I've heard it said that Bridgwater carnival, which dates back to 1847, is the biggest illuminated carnival in the world (meaning it's perhaps not as big as the walking day time carnivals in Rio de Janeiro).
I do feel that somehow it's the South West's accidentally best kept secret... I'm amazed more people don't travel to see it (although about 150,000 do). The floats (or “carts”) are massive with up to 22,000 light bulbs - the heat that comes off them when they pass is immense! (Although not as immense as it used to be as light bulbs have improved.)
If you're visiting a carnival, be prepared for the roads into the town to close early. Check out the individual town's website before the day, and study the procession (they do change some years / they won't always be the same). You'll then be able to plan where to park, if you're driving, or your public transport timings. Be aware that if you park quite centrally, you'll be quick to get back to your car but you'll then be stuck in town whilst the procession finishes and people gradually ebb away. If you park on the outskirts you'll have a longer walk in and out but you're get away will be much easier once the carnival is finished.
The history of Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival
Whilst the official Bridgwater carnival website cites 1847 as a key date in the formation of the carnival, the whole event has stemmed from the 1605 Gun Powder Plot, and the official website still calls it the "Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival", with a picture of Fawkes and a barrel of gun powder in the event's logo. The connection is a man called Robert Parsons, who was a key part of the plot and lived just outside Bridgwater in Nether Stowey. After the infamous 5th November attempt to blow up the houses of parliament, King James 1st decreed that bonfires should be lit every year to remember the event - and the people of Bridgwater fully embraced this tradition, even making their own potent "squib" fireworks. There weren't local newspapers in the town until the 1800s which is when reliable journalistic reports of the evolution of the carnival begin but there are still records of people being killed by a gun powder explosion in the 1700s.
How does it work?
The way carnival works is that there are lots of competing clubs. Each club spends the year preparing their entry and then appears in the procession at the carnivals. There are various “circuits”, such as the South Somerset circuit (which covers Wellington, Ilminster, Chard, Taunton, and Yeovil), the Devon circuit, and the North Somerset / Bridgwater circuit. In the case of the South Somerset circuit, Wellington carnival is the last Saturday in September every year, followed by Ilminster the following Saturday, etc leading up to Bridgwater. Once the South Somerset circuit is finished, most clubs from that circuit do the North Somerset Circuit, whilst lots of new clubs appear for the first time each year from Bridgwater onwards. Within each circuit there's a Federation competition - so as well as competing at each carnival, each club is competing within their federation, overall, week on week. For example, if a club wins Best Feature Float at Chard and Ilminster and Taunton, they'll hope to win their Federation cup for that year. There's a big Federation ball held each year where all the carnivalites go to hear the year's results.
(Growing up I was in the South Somerset circuit and then did a few of the weekend North Somerset carnivals - so that's why I know about them and less about Devon.)
Meanwhile, whilst the South Somerset carnivals are each Saturday for a few weeks, the North Somerset circuit is more intense over fewer weeks. When I was growing up Bridgwater carnival was always on the Thursday closest to 5th November, but it's now on the Saturday closest to it. They moved it from a Thursday a few years ago to allow more people to go, and so shuffled all the rest of the carnivals which came after it. I think firstly they moved it to a Friday, and worked their way up to Saturday and the complete reshuffle. The line up is currently:
- Bridgwater - Saturday
- Burnham on Sea - Monday
- Weston Super Mare - Friday
- North Petherton - Saturday
- Midsomer Norton - Monday
- Shepton Mallet - Wednesday
- Wells - Friday
- Glastonbury - Saturday
As you can see, if you're in the carnivals, it's a pretty intense couple of weeks! People can just enter the odd procession, but if you're in a serious club, then you do all of them in order to stand a chance in your Federation.
Carnival juding
Within each carnival there are also lots of classes, such as feature (which basically means all singing all dancing), tableaux (where people stand really really still - you're marked down if you move), comedy (generally smaller, less “polished” floats), and kids. There are also lots of walking classes such as walking groups of adults, or kids, or walking groups over a certain amount of people.
There are then cups / prizes for things like best costume, best make up, best lighting, best choreography and best music. Each carnival has different judges (my Grandad and Uncle have both been judges!) who stand solemnly watching the procession with a clip board, taking everything in. Carnival is fiercely competitive so for the best show, stand behind someone with a clipboard as the people on the floats dance that little big harder when they're going past a judge!
There are also lots of other entries which make up a procession, such as collecting floats, asking you to throw money to fundraise for carnival, fire engines, and marching bands and majorettes (baton twirling dancers).
It can take up to 3 hours for a procession to complete (3hrs being Bridgwater which is the longest); that's a long time dancing to the same song! (As each float has a piece of music it plays over and over again and the people on the float dance to it.) But it goes quite quickly and you've obviously got different people to look at all the way around. Especially on your “home turf”, you can look out for people you know. There are sometimes short pieces of road which are called “rest areas” where, although the float is still moving, you can break routine or tableaux and be handed a drink.
A while after the procession finishes the results are announced - it was always a thing - “are you staying for the results?” And generally the answer for me was no, I was young and I had to go home to bed. But I do remember the odd occasion of gathering somewhere in a town square straining to hear what was being read out. If you didn't stay though, the jungle drums meant you soon knew how everyone got on - and it'd be all the more instant now with WhatsApp and social media.
Typically the big floats are made up of 3 parts - a tractor (or increasingly, lorries), the float, and a generator. Each part is fully decorated though so it might not look like a tractor and the generator will just look like a massive decorated box. It's a great priviledge to get to be on the tractor - that was usually awarded to people who had put the most work in over the year (although also, lots of people who put a lot of work in won't actually be on the float - they'll be ground crew, more concerned with actually keeping the ship afloat than dancing around).
Carnival shows
A lesser known part of carnival is the shows. I really don't suspect many locals even realise that a big part of entering the federation - for the big clubs - actually includes performing a stage show. In the run up to carnival season, shows are put on where each club has 8 minutes to perform a display based on their theme for the year.
South Somerset did this for a while - I remember going to one when I was little in the Shrubbery Hotel in Ilminster - but they don't any more. Meanwhile however for the Bridgwater circuit they're a huge part of the fundraising for the year.
The carnival acts are interspersed with "professional" acts and it's apparently a very good show. I said about that I don't think many "locals" know about that - but I mean broadly speaking. I live about 30 minutes from Bridgwater, very much in North Somerset, and I bet lots of my friends here wouldn't know about them. But when I asked my Auntie and Uncle about them - people from South Somerset who were really into carnival - they said how popular the show was and how my Grandparents used to queue for tickets!
Choosing a theme
In South Somerset, after the carnivals have finished for the year, plans will start for the following year. If all clubs are like the one I was in (the now disbanded Domino), then a meeting would be held where anyone with ideas for a float would present their designs and the club would vote. I spent hours drawing my ideas on A3 paper! Mine were never selected though! Ideas can be based on films that are new releases, well known shows or musicals, a large calendar event such as the Coronation, or moments in history such as wars.
Meanwhile however, I've learned whilst writing this article that the Bridgwater "Gangs" (more on that later) actually have to declare their themes 2 years in advance! This is so that there are no clashes and everyone is definately doing something different. In our circuit there was always lots of secrecy around what someone was doing, and all would be revealed on Wellington night. I guess with the shows the Gangs can't have the same level of secrecy as everyone will know the theme from that - but I don't know if they're a closely guarded secret until that point.
As the Bridgwater circuit starts at the beginning of November, it's a little late for Halloween and a little early for Christmas but that's not to say some clubs don't have those themes. Some themes can feel done to death, or sometimes someone puts a new spin on a familiar theme - such as “circus” or “pirates” and it works really well. Often a theme will be based around a piece of music such as “pin ball wizard” or “step into Christmas”. In 2023 Ramblers CC won most weeks with their float Trawlerman, which was certainly a theme I hadn't seen done before!
I drafted this article the Friday before Bridgwater this year - and then the next day I saw that the very impressive Ramblers have actually done Pin Ball Wizard this year!
Over the years the hydraulics and movement on the floats has gotten really impressive - such as on Gremlins pirate ship float which actually had a rocking action like it was on the sea.
Clubs and Gangs
Typically a carnival club is just that - a club. With a Chair, Treasurer, Secretary, and a Cart Captain. Like you're standard UK Committee (plus Cart Captain!). You then have a choreographer and it's always handy if you've got an electrician in your midsts. We'd have monthly meetings and an AGM, and everyone had to pull their weight preparing. As a teenager in an adult club (I was desperate to get on a float and my break came at 12 or 13 when our club had technical difficulties with their feature entry so quickly had to pull together a tableaux entry in 2 weeks and not everyone in the club wanted to do it, so I got my chance!) I couldn't drive myself to the farm when we built, and when I got there there wasn't that much I could do. So I used to help with costumes as I could do sewing at home.
The main Bridgwater clubs though are called "Gangs". The difference with a Gang is that they get a share of the carnival's official fundraising - including the money raised from the shows. Anyone can form a carnival club, but you can't start a new Gang - I believe you can "apply" to start one but it's unlikely you'll get given the go ahead, whereas new clubs spring up all the time after any drunken chat at the pub between friends.
Traditionally Gangs were men only, but women have crept in over the years! My Uncle recalled one year when one of them did "Show Girls" as a theme and everyone wondered how it would work with no women, but that year they had 3 ladies on the cart. Ramblers was possibly the last to allow women, and it's still a largely men-dominated club.
According to the official Bridgwater site, the definition of a "Gang" is a tableaux entry (where you stand still) but that's odd as not many are now... my Uncle guesses that maybe back along most were tableaux and on the website they are referred to as "Gangs and Features" ("Feature" being the class where you dance).
The official Gangs and Features are:
- Crusaders
- Centurion
- Gremlins (personal fave)
- British Flag
- Ramblers (becoming a personal fave)
- Cavaliers
- Lime Kiln
- Vagabonds
- Wills
- Renegades
- Marketeers (typically won stuff when I was growing up)
- Griffens (my late Grandad's - who was a founder member of our club Domino - favourite. I'm talking about Gill if anyone from Carnival stumbles upon this.)
"Associate" Gangs and Features are:
- Marina Sydenham Juvenile (kids club)
- Newmarket
- Pentathlon
- Toppers
- Wilfs
I don't know what "associate" means and I can't find a definition.
Squibbing
Squibbing is a huge part of Bridgwater carnival tradition (not the other processions), but despite having carnival in my blood, it's not something I've ever seen. I guess just because I was young when I did a lot of carnival and as it happens after the procession it would be quite late (although apparently they're moving the carnival time forward this year so that squibbing can be earlier). I've also always grown up with a slight impression that it's dangerous - lots of fire on sticks being thrown around - but my mum is an overly cautious one. Update: My Auntie has been once and was terrified, haha!
Squibbing is basically Bridgwater's own firework - gunpowder on the end of a stick, and the stick is held horizontally. A select few people hold the stick and are spaced down a road, with the public behind them, and then they all light their sticks and there's a very impressive - almost white light it's so bright - from the "firework".
And that's it! My little guide to carnival which I've been meaning to write for years, actually, now I come to think of it. I hope it's been interesting! I'm collecting (as in, collecting money to help with fundraising) at Weston this year - see you there!
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