The crowds turned out in force, as hoped, to support the return of carnival to Midsomer Norton's High Street on Monday night. The evening began positively, but as the parade set off, the heavens opened, making it a very soggy event indeed.
The new route, which has been two years in planning, was intended to include Midsomer Norton, Radstock and Westfield, but with huge crowds descending on Midsomer Norton High Street, numbers in Radstock and Westfield became a little sparse. As the weather deteriorated, this did not help those patiently waiting towards the end of the procession.
Reports of a breakdown at Stones Cross meant that the procession was late reaching Radstock. Further problems arose with an ambulance having to be called to someone unwell in Radstock, followed by a float breaking down with clutch problems and leaking diesel on Wells Hill, which, mixed with heavy rain, meant some of the larger carts had to be towed, with the last float passing through Westfield at around 11 p.m.
Posting on Facebook in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the Midsomer Norton and District Carnival Association said: "We had a few problems, which was a great shame after all the hard work and testing. The procession started off well, before the worst of the weather, and was very well welcomed by the thousands of spectators that packed out the High Street and the roads all the way to Radstock.
"During the early part of the procession in Radstock, we had to deal with an incident which resulted in a very long delay due to the location of the ambulance. In the unrelated incident, a small number of entrants had traction issues on Wells Hill, which resulted in further delay. During our initial test run of the route, we did a test re-start in wet conditions to test for traction, these tests proved successful, however, as well as the wet conditions, diesel had also been spilled, causing further problems.
"We are certainly going to review all the findings from our event for next year and will continue to work closely with those clubs that support us. We would very much like to thank all those that took part and to those that also came out and supported the event. Our collection count is well underway and despite the weather and the problems, let's hope for a great result!"
It is expected the Carnival Association will now be looking at next year's event in great detail, including whether or not the route will need to be altered again, or the start time made a little earlier, as some of the younger participants found the lengthy course challenging, particularly in wet conditions.
Although a small section of the carnival made it to Westfield, the Parish says it missed out on the biggest and brightest part of the carnival itself and is asking for a full enquiry as to why this happened, saying it has paid considerable sums to the Carnival Association for many years.
Chair of Westfield Parish Council, Cllr Geoff Fuller said: "I am very upset and dissatisfied with the outcome of this year's carnival, the people of Westfield were badly let down. It would be nice if the Carnival Association would acknowledge Westfield Parish Council and the people of Westfield and let us know why this happened and whether it can be rectified."
Speaking on Tuesday, Paul Myers, Mayor of Midsomer Norton, said: "It was a tale of two carnivals, with a jubilant Midsomer Norton and a deeply disappointed Westfield. All this, after nearly two years of Westfield and Midsomer Norton working in close partnership with the Carnival Association to create a bigger and better event than ever before. A huge thanks must go to the floats that came, the Association who struggled on to make sure everyone got through in the end, the public for attending and sponsor, Bath and North East Somerset Council, whose Officers worked so hard with everyone to make it possible."
Whilst it had teething problems, those who attended in Midsomer Norton and experienced the excitement of once more seeing the procession through the High Street, will be hoping that Monday night's event is the beginning of a bigger and brighter future for local carnival in the area. This year will not be forgotten, for a variety of reasons.