Carnival Day 2016
The Carnival at the Castle 2016 took place on Sunday 19 June. The sun shone and it was a glorious afternoon, and busy too - at least 8,000 were estimated to have attended! Stalls bustled, songs were sung, thousands were raised for charity, the fancy dress was charming, and everyone had a good time celebrating a community day in the sun.
Photo; The fancy dress competition 2016, courtesy of Sue Brewster Brown.
THANK YOU to everyone who took part; those who helped, supported or sponsored, the stall-holders and the performers, and of course to everybody who came along on the day! We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!
What took place
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Photos shown on this page are just some of the best sent in or found on social media.
Thanks to our regular photographer; Steve Beeston photography.
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The Opening
The Carnival was formally opened at 1.20pm in the arena in the Castle grounds by the Mayor of Hertford, Cllr Dr Linda Radford.
Cllr Radford gave an opening speech before declaring the Carnival 'Open!'.
See Fancy dress competition, the Opening and the Castle for photos!
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Stalls at the Castle
From 12pm to 5pm there were stalls and refreshments in the busy Castle grounds.
We had 50 stalls exhibiting their wares on Carnival day. Many favourites from previous years returned, plus some new faces!
Essential food requirements were definitely catered for with tea and plenty of cake, a McMullens drinks tent and plentiful Pimms, whole pizzas and lots of icecream. Stalls sold chutneys, cars and crafts, local organisations showcased their services, whilst traditional fete activities and games such as tombolas, lucky dips and face painting also took place. There were also six foot dogs, yachts to clamber on, and many balloons!
Preference for stall applicants was given to Hertford-based applicants, and favourable rates were given to local businesses and/or charities.
Photos of the stalls are here;
The list of stalls was as follows;
Steve's Ices |
Ribbons |
2nd Bengeo Scouts |
Sugar Baby |
Sad Cat Rescue |
Mind in Mid Herts |
The Secret Space Yoga |
Future Living |
Café Santiago |
WI Market |
Sensory Space |
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Hertford and District Camera Club |
Herts and Crafts |
Herts Building Preservation Trust |
Police and equipment |
Hertford & Ware Crime Prevention |
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Various children's games |
Bouncy castle |
Face Painting |
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Herts Aid |
Clair's Cakes |
Picketts of Hertford - Butcher |
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Friends 'n'Trends - jewellery & fancy goods |
Green Party |
Helping in Gambia |
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Abel of Hertford - see sponsors |
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Longmore Solicitors - see sponsors |
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Glitter tattoos |
Hardy's Ice Cream |
Hertford Theatre |
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Hartham Leisure Centre - see arena |
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Waste Services |
Vets4Pets |
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The Pink Pinny |
Nuffield Health |
Hertford and District Scout Association |
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The Snug Hot Dog stand |
First Responders |
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Balloons |
Transition Hertford |
Petruccis Wood Fired Pizzeria |
Herts Walks |
Top Hat Stage & Screen School - see arena |
Town Twinning |
Hertford & Ware Bee Keepers |
County Castles |
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McMullens |
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Inner Wheel tea tent |
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St John's Ambulance (first aid) |
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Arena entertainment at the Castle
From 12pm to 5pm there were arena events and entertainment on the lawn at Hertford Castle.
The Mayor formally opened the proceedings at 1.20; see Opening.
There was a charming fancy dress competition; see Fancy dress competition, the opening and the castle.
Groups or individuals were encouraged to perform in the arena, with preference being given to local participants, especially those who could bring a party feel to the proceedings! Crowds gathered to watch, and either sat in the sun or danced along.
Some performers returned as crowd favourites from the previous years, some were brand new, and all of them were super!
Entertainments were as follows;
12.15 - 12.30 Everyone Active Zumba Dancing
12.30 - 12.50 The Little Performers Street Dancers, St Andrews School
12.50- 13.20 Children's fancy dress parade
13.20 - 13.40 Mayor's opening speech to all and judging of fancy dress competition
13.40- 14.15 Top Hat stage school
14.15– 14.35 Scottish Country Dancing by the South East Herts Scottish Country Dance Society
14.35 - 15.15 Fusion Voices in Harmony
15.15 - 15.35 The Graham Moss Big Band
15.35 - 16.00 Top Hat stage school
16.00- 17.00 The Shambles
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Everyone Active Zumba Dancing
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The Zumba display by Everyone Active is always a great start to the day and this year was no exception - great music and dynamic moves!
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Little Performers Street Dancers from St Andrews school
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The children of St Andrews school (Calton Avenue) brought us an exciting (and very cute) street dancing set, designed and practised with the Little Performer Street Dancing company. This company provide dance classes to primary schools as after school clubs - see their website here.
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Top Hat stage school
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Top Hat - an established stage school in St Albans and now new to Potters Bar (see their website here) - gave us their Top Trix elite choir for the day. These ten talented teens sang and danced their way through a medley of classics and more modern numbers, each taking a turn to shine with the microphone. Their well choreographed 'Shut up and dance with me' routine in particular had the audience tapping and clapping along!
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Four snaps of their performances, from their facebook page; Purple rain Shut up and dance Total eclipse Drag Me Down (One Direction)
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South East Herts Scottish Country Dance Society
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This genteel and old-fashioned twenty minute set proved very popular. The society danced into the arena resplendent in shawls, kilts and smiles, and danced a number of reels. Numbers were soon swelled by the old, the young and the tiny joining in. The live fiddle accompaniment had everyone tapping their feet. Details of the society can be found here.
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Fusion Voices in Harmony
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The Fusion choir performed in their co-ordinated scarves and with co-ordinated voices, and looked and sounded as good as ever! Their set this year included songs such as The Coors 'Runaway'.
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A video of their performance, courtesy of Cllr Jane Sartin.
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The Graham Moss Big Band
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The Big Band performed in hats and with guitars, entertaining us with a mixture of tunes.
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Shambles Band
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Performing for their second year on the Carnival stage, the four talented youngsters from Sele School gave us a super indie/rock based set.
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Vlog of their performance at Carnival day 2016, via their facebook page.
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Photos of these events and performers are here;
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Fancy dress competition, the opening, and the castle
About thirty children from tiny to medium took part in the annual fancy dress this year, and it was wonderful.
The parade assembled in front of the castle at 1pm, proceeded around the grounds to music on the sound system and led by the Mayor, before lining up in the arena. The Mayor declared the Carnival open, and then she and her fellow judges got onto the serious business of choosing the winners!
There were some great costumes on show; the arena was transformed into a wonderland with stormtroopers, cheerleaders, gypsies, fairies, pirates, and of course princesses. Some children stuck fantastically to the Carnival theme, looking great as clowns in huge trousers, wearing crazy shirts, or in flamboyant outfits including beads, shawls and masks!
The judges included the Mayor of Hertford Cllr Dr Linda Radford, Abel Sales and Lettings director Ami Hayward (Abel sponsored the fancy dress), and Rotary chairman David Pearce. They had an impossible job as everyone looked great, but finally chose four very deserving winners!
The winners were a small Peter Pan, a tiny Bat Girl, a tiny Aerial, and Harry Potter (who must have particularly liked the prize of a bubble wand!)
Meanwhile the Castle was open, with the Friends on hand to answer historical questions and to show people around. 145 visitors had been counted inside in the first hour alone!
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Charity collections
We wanted Hertford Carnival to benefit our local community, and charities were selected to be the beneficiaries of all monies raised on the day from collections. We sought donations on the Castle gates, as well as on certain stalls, and appreciated all your generosity!
The chosen charities for 2016 were Isabel Hospice and Shelterbox; click here to read about them, and about the money raised.
The committee and volunteers lurked with their collecting tins at the gates and around the grounds ... And you gave - thank you!
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Miscellaneous
Programmes were distributed on the day, and taken away as a souvenir!
St John first aiders were on hand during the day, with personnel visible in the Castle grounds.
Participants and spectators stuck to Health & Safety guidelines and thus ensured a safe and enjoyable day for all.
Professional and amateur photographers took a variety of pictures during the day, and these were either sent direct to us or found by us in public social media. A selection has been included on these archive pages, and across the website as a whole. Thank you if we have used yours.
If a photo containing your child appears on the website and you object, please contact the webmaster, describing the photo. Please make sure you add the email subject header 'Hertford Carnival'. We will be happy to take it down.
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Feedback
Numerous people contacted us verbally and via our email address, twitter page and via other avenues to comment on Carnival Day 2016. We were delighted to receive these positive comments - it made the hard work and months of planning worthwhile!
A selection of comments are included here, and cover our organisers, sponsors, stall-holders and performers;
David Pearce, Hertford Rotary President, 19 June;
I would like to say a great big "THANK YOU!" and "WELL DONE!" to everyone involved in helping in any way for today's Carnival. To those involved in the Committee, those attending the quiz, those distributing flyers, those assisting at the event and those working on stalls for Rotary, Inner Wheel or any of our sponsors. And to the people of Hertford and the surrounding areas for attending.
As for the Mums and Dads who got their children ready for the Fancy dress, you did fantastically and everyone involved was a winner. I had never realised that judging could be so difficult and I hope we did not ruffle too many feathers with our decisions. Next year maybe we will have different age categories in order to increase the number of winners.
This was the last event of my year as Rotary President and it was a fitting end and made me proud of the fact that I am a Rotarian. It calls to mind the phrase; "Volunteers are not unpaid because they are worthless, they are unpaid because they are priceless!"
Thank you everyone!
David, President
Jane Sartin, chairman of Hertford Town Council development and leisure Committee, said: "Hundreds and hundreds of people enjoyed the day; the castle lawn was packed. It was incredibly busy and possibly even more popular than usual".
Hertford Town Council @HertfordTC What a brilliant turn out, thank you everyone for supporting the @HertCarnival again this year.
Abel - Sales and Lettings Thank you for all your support at the Carnival yesterday at Hertford Castle. We had a fantastic day and are pleased to announce we've raised £257 for Keech Hospice Care! (Abel sponsored the fancy dress parade and the arena, but opted to send the profits from their stall to another deserving local hospice)
Transition Hertford @TransitionHert Great day at the #HertfordCarnival, Lots of interest in our cars, in diff shades of red AND diff shades of #green!
McMullen's Brewery @mcmullens1827 Great day at @HertCarnival yesterday
Sandra C via Streetlife
A big thank you to the Rotary Club for organising yet another super super day at the Castle, weather stayed fair, so all in all a really enjoyable day. Lovely to see our Lady Mayor, Linda Radford doing a tour of all the stallholders - she works so hard. Future Living met lots of new people on our tombola stall and will definitely be a permanent fixture in the future ... We raised £114 for the charity.
The Secret Space We had a lovely day at the Hertford Carnival today. Great to meet more local people and give lots of treatments.
G Pickett Butchers Great day at Hertford carnival. Great to meet past, present and future customers. Thanks to Hertford Rotary Club for organising a great event.
Lovely Grub Garden (Transition stall) Lots of plants sold (and funds raised) at Hertford Carnival today
Anita Brien @noodleflute It was a great day! Loved all the entertainment too! Thanks to #Rotary!
Graham Moss Big Band We had a great time at the Hertford Carnival. There were many people who we know waving at us. We also made a good zombie joke.
Beth Hardy @BethHFundraiser (Isabel Hospice) What a great community event! Thank you so much for choosing to support @IsabelHospice
Steven Oates @stevenoatesEA Well done to @HertCarnival for another great event.
Verbal feedback from spectators, stall-holders and performers was good.
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Why no procession and a smaller-scale event at Hertford Castle?
Unfortunately, due to not enough participants, the 2014 procession was cancelled. See Why no procession and a smaller-scale event at Hertford Castle? in our 2014 coverage.
Although a big community day in the traditional carnival way is preferable, we decided to continue without a procession for 2015, and again for 2016.
We need a minimum number of floats to make a procession viable for costs and spectators, and in 2014 the carnival almost had to be cancelled due to not enough procession participants at the cut-off date. This incurred costs and some rather rapid and hectic redesigning of the whole afternoon.
We realise that a standard fun day is not to everyone's taste. If you are unhappy, make sure you help out and/or apply for 2017! We would like the next event to be a big community day in the traditional carnival way, but do need a minimum number of floats (enrolled in plenty of time; last minute applications create rather a headache) to make it viable for costs and spectators.
We also need some help organising the day; even a small-scale static standard event takes months of planning, with a whole raft of unexciting but incredibly necessary actions to translate ideas into reality.
We worked long and hard again this year to organise and put on an afternoon of fun for the community, and we are grateful to all those who participated, who supported us, and everyone who came along and enjoyed the day.
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