Horley Carnival 2017 a blistering hot success
The Carnival Procession was large, the floats showing great imagination, working to the theme of the “Wonders of the Sea”. A testament as to the strength of the community spirit was seen with no less than eight local schools entering floats on the day. In addition other sectors of the community really pulled out all the stops, with floats entered from a wide breadth of the community.
The Procession itself comprised 18 floats and exhibits, led off by the Redhill Corp of Drums and Band and further escorted by the Surrey & Sussex Drum & Bugle Corps. On route the Procession was joined by the Bloco Du Sol, which had been playing in town centre outside Cost Coffee, getting spectators in a party mood with their samba type music. Further along the route the Procession also picked up the Gatwick Caledonian Pipe Band which had been entertaining the crowds in the Town Centre Precinct.
The Procession as organised by members of Horley Lions Club, was well marshalled thanks to the support of volunteers from 41 club, Horley Football Club and Britaniacrest Recycling. Everyone joined into party spirit, the Procession being patrolled by Traffic Management Vehicles courtesy of the Gatwick Group, Britaniacrest and Herts Traffic Management.
We were once again delighted to welcome Gatwick Airport Ltd as our headline sponsor and we were also extremely pleased to receive sponsorship donations from Reigate & Banstead Borough Councillors David Jackson, Tony Schofield and Christian Stevens.
The various trophy winners were as follows:
The Carnival ground was packed with people, supporting the various stalls run by local clubs and charities. The range of stalls was very wide, from face painting up to a very educational exhibit run by the NHS East Surrey Clinical Commissioning Group and the Macmillan Nurses. One sideshow that really caught the attention was Tom’s Talking Reptiles which offered younger people the opportunity to get up close and handle reptiles of various sizes (some of them enormous!) and shapes.
Throughout the afternoon the main arena had a series of performances given by the bands from the procession and other local youth organisations.
A Spokesperson said “Horley is quite unique as the people come out to support the community events with such enthusiasm and through your paper we would like to thank them for partaking so fully”
We understand that the Carnival Committee will shortly be sitting down to start organising next year’s event, the plan being to decide upon another popular theme and to broaden the main arena entertainment, so watch this space!! Our Flickr Album is available here.
