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16/06/2009 Carnival Chairman Passes Away
Dawlish Carnival Committee have the sad news that our Chairman
Brian Heath recently passed away. Vice Chairman of the committee,
Warren Drew said; 'We have lost a valued colleague, but even more
so, we have lost a trusted and dear friend, and our prayers and
thoughts are with Brian's family at this difficult time. ''Whilst
this has had no doubt, a profound effect on the committee members
who have worked with him over the past 15 years he has been a
member, we are continuing in our plans to put on another superb
event this year.'' The 15 strong committee, including Mr Heath,
have been working hard since last year to rejuvenate the event
with a lot of changes including several new ideas and events.'
Mr Heath played a big part in designing, creating and operating
numerous carnival floats on which he became affectionately known
as “Grandad” to many a carnival royalty member; instigated and
developed, more lately alongside another committee member, the
Dawlish Carnival Airshow which is now talked about by people all
around the world and had the daunting task of chairing the often
lively committee meetings.
Whilst carnival in Dawlish will continue now and into the future
as it has done in the past 40 years in it’s current format, and
much longer before that, it relies on the community volunteer
spirit Brian very much believed in and followed by his involvement
with the carnival and many other good causes throughout his life.
The energy and enjoyment he got from being part of carnival is, as
ever, on offer to anybody inspired to become involved by Mr
Heath's achievements throughout his life.
The Funeral Service will take
place at St. Gregory's Church, Dawlish on Thursday 25th June 2009
at 11:00 a.m. followed by a cremation at 12.15pm at the Exeter and
Devon Crematorium. Donations in memory of Brian, in aid of Dawlish
Hospital or Macmillan Nurses, may be given by retiring collection
or may be sent to J.H Way Funeral Service, 7-9 Brook Street,
Dawlish, Devon, EX7 9AB.
10/06/2009 -
Changes For Carnival
As
many of you will already be aware that there will be some major
changes to the 2009 Dawlish Carnival Week this year, the biggest
change is that the Airshow will take place on Thursday 20th
and the Grand Procession on Friday 21st August.
Both the Airshow
Day and Carnival Day will be full packed of entertainment for all
the family and will contain a Bar and Live Evening Entertainment
from the Lawn.
Another change
in the week's programme is that Charity Day that normally takes
place on the first Saturday of the week will now take place on
Saturday 22nd August (the last Saturday).
The Committee
have also made a complete overhaul of the whole weeks programme
and have introduced many new events and will be moving others
around to enhance and improve the week’s entertainment capacity to
ensure you get the best out of carnival.
Obviously we are
not going to give you the full programme of events, but you will
be able to buy a full colour programme from mid July which will
contain all the scheduled acts and events, these will be available
about 85% of businesses in and around Dawlish.
Some of the new
events that the Committee have scheduled for Carnival Week 2009
include; The Action Entertainment Stunt Show, Dog Show, Junior
Pram Race, Tug O War, "Dawlish Has Talent", Live Music and a
Scavenger Hunt along with many others.
Also throughout
the week we will also have many side stalls, a bouncy castle, a
static wildlife displays, funfair rides, hot food and refreshments
from the marquee and even paintball!
So make sure
those dates are securely in your diary, and if you haven’t already
started building those prams, rafts and floats remembering our
2009 theme is Musicals. Now’s the time to get started! We have
just over 10 weeks to go now!
7/06/2009 -
Carnival Fundraising
The evening took place at the Atmospheric Railway Inn, Starcross,
and saw many things happening throughout the night which included
the main feature of the night ‘Karaoke’ with a twist! People had
to pay 50p to sing a song while the audience could pay a £1 to
stop them; also among the event was a BBQ and Raffle.
The
event was organised and held by the Dawlish Carnival Queen herself
Claire Barnes Northcott and her family/friends. The event was held
in aid of Dawlish Carnival, to help raise money for the float
funds.
Many people throughout the evening hit the stage to sing their
favourite karaoke songs to ‘try’ and impress the audience, among
those people was the Carnival Queens Mother who blew the audience
away with her voice after singing the Pasty Cline song ‘Crazy’,
the Queen herself also sang that evening, with people paying £10
just for her to Sing!
Adam Dimond and Richard Stevens from the Carnival Committee also
joined in the fun and plucked the courage to have a go singing ‘Oh
Boy!’ and ‘I’m A Believer’ (It was just a
shame that Warren Drew couldn’t find the confidence to sing as he
has not sung karaoke for around 12 years, singing last when he was
only 18!)
We
would like to send a big thank you to the following people for
donating prizes for the raffle; Chi Chinese Restaurant (3
course meal for 4 people), Powderham Castle (Family Ticket)
and staff from EDF Energy (£10.00
Voucher & DVD Packs).
Also not forgetting all of those who came along to support the
evening’s events, weather to sing on the karaoke or to throw the
pound in to keep them quiet! With your support it made a great
family fun night out, which everyone seemed to enjoy!
12/05/2009 - Royalty Crowning
The next event that has been organised by the Dawlish Carnival
Committee will be the official Royalty Crowning, which will see
Claire Barnes Northcott
(Queen), Rosie Carew (Princess) and
Anne-Marie Collins (Attendant) crowned by Exeter FM’s James Santer.
The
crowning ceremony will take place from the Bandstand on the Lawn,
Dawlish, from 2.15pm on Sunday 24th May. There will be
a bouncy castle and stalls open earlier in the afternoon.
Once the Royalty have been crowned, you are all invited to watch
an afternoons of entertainment which will include the daredevils,
breathtaking Red Sparrows Display Team who will take to the Sky’s
(or ground), also joining us will be the Tae Kwon Do team, Mr
Pitts and his sheep dog demonstration and Kathy Luxton and her
Belly Dancers.
So
come along and join us in a great afternoon of entertainment, and
support the Royalty as they are crowned and ready to perform their
first Royal duties for Dawlish.
09/03/2009 - Oh
What A Night!
The night started off with a disco, with many families and
youngsters turning out, with some in the hope of becoming Royalty
for Dawlish and the Carnival, after the floor started filling the
Committee began the Royalty Selection.
The
judges was taken place by members from Ashburton Carnival, Donna,
Mike, Dawn and Mike who we would like to thank for taking their
time and making the effort to select our royalty for us.
The
selection started by calling young girls aged from 9 to 11 who
would like to stand for Attendant, there where only two girls who
stepped forward for this, however it was soon adjusted by two of
our Committee members Adam and Derek who thought they had a chance
(no chance). The judges asked the hopefuls a series of questions
and then the disco commenced again.
After a short break with disco the girls aged 12 to 14 wishing to
stand for princess were called forward, once again there were only
two, so Adam and Derek stepped in once again. When asked why he
would like to be a princess Derek replied “because I’m having fun”
The judges took their time finding out about each girl, with only
two hopefuls for the past two groups it was surely going to be a
hard decision for the judges to make.
Before the disco started again, there was a member from the
Children’s Hospice South West, Mr Tony Moore, who attended to
collect a check from the Committee for £300 which was raised from
the result of the Santa’s Grotto during the towns Christmas
market. Mr Moore said that he thanks the committee for the time
and hard work to enable to raise this money.
Shortly after the disco started again, the contenders for Queen
were called up, this time seeing 5 girls coming forward, as if it
wasn’t hard enough already. However by this time the some members
of the Committee had taken it too seriously and decided to enter,
this time Roz and Mandi joining both Adam and Derek in Drag. This
time around the judges asked some more difficult questions, which
the girls had to think about and answer, putting them all to the
test.
Once all the girls had been seen the disco began for the last time
while the judges had to take a lot of thought and hard decision
making in who will be the chosen as Royalty for 2009. After a long
discussion the judges finally had their answer.
For
2009 in reverse order we will see Anne-Marie Collins as Attendant and Stevie Anderson as her understudy, Rosie Carew as Princess and
Hazel Anderson as her understudy and finally
Claire Barnes Northcott as Queen
and Lauren Anthony as understudy. We congratulate those who were
lucky enough to be chosen, and hope they enjoy there year as
Royalty for Dawlish.
As
with any carnival event, everyone is a winner (even those
committee members who added some fun and entertainment to the
evening – or at least tried) and with out those who were
unfortunate, there would be no competition, so we thank you all
and hope you try again in the future.
The
next event being run by the Carnival Committee will be the Easter
Bonnet Parade, which shall take place on Sunday 12th
April, we hope to see you all there.
22/01/2009 -
Youth Disco & Royalty Selection
The next event will be the Carnival Disco and Royalty Selection
this will take place on Friday 6th March 2009
at Seasiders, Sandy Lane, Dawlish, (Formerly Dawlish Town Football
Club House). Doors open at 7.00pm and there will be a small on
door entry of £1.50.
The event is a Disco for all the family to come along and enjoy a
night out, which will also see the selection of the Royal Family
for 2009. If chosen to become Royalty the duties involve visiting
other carnivals around the Devon circuit and most importantly
attending our own carnival week and procession.
If anyone wishes to enter for royalty, they simply have to turn up
on the night and come forward when there class is called. The
classes and ages are as follows: Queen - 15+, Princess - 12 to 14
years and Attendant 9 - 11 years, please notice that parental
permission is required for you to enter for royalty.
So come along for a great night out, bring the family along and
see who will become Carnival Royalty for Dawlish 2009.
Also
a reminder that Dawlish Carnival will take place from 15th - 22nd
August seeing the Airshow on Thursday 20th and the Grand
Procession on Friday 21st August 2009.
20/01/2009 - Theme Announced For 2009
For 2009 the committee
have decided the theme for the carnival will be Musicals, as this
year is a popular year for musicals and many TV shows have been
aired such as "how do you solve a problem like Maria" etc, the
committee feel this should bring a many magical window displays
this year and should give the general theme of the carnival a very
colourful backdrop.
12/01/2009 - Carnival To Spread The Fun For 2009
In August of 2008 Dawlish Carnival held its 40th
annual Carnival Week. With this special year it saw a spectacular
airshow with over 18 displays from ground to the air. It also
brought with it an outstanding estimated record number of around
90,000 spectators.
On this one day alone the town is full with
visitors and spectators from all around the country, and the shop
trade is dramatically increased.
It has now become such a big mainstream event for
such a small town, that the Committee have had to take some
serious thought into the how the airshow/carnival day is run,
after all health and safety is a priority these days and has to
come first. And with so little manpower it proves to be a lot of
work for such a small team to put into one day.
Although the dedicated team who organise and help
to put on this great event work so hard to make it that perfect
family day out, it has been decided after a long discussion
between the committee, to move the procession to the Friday
evening of carnival week.
But fear not, both the airshow and procession will
continue to grow from strength to strength, and for 2009 the
committee will be planning not one but two full nights of
entertainment on the lawn with music and a licensed bar on both
evenings and to enhance the day programme on the Friday to retain
the thousands of visitors in the town for another great day of
entertainment.
For 2009 we will see Carnival Week run from 15th
– 22nd August with the Airshow on Thursday 20th
August and the Procession on Friday 21st August, which
will certainly end the week on a high.
Don’t forget to book the time off work, and if your
on holiday book those dates now!, it has now become an
internationally known airshow and one of the best full weeks of
entertainment around.
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