Appeal for Whitley Bay Carnival crowdfunder effort
Funding fear threat as town’s carnival prepares to take to the streets. Tony Henderson reports
A town’s weekend carnival enjoyed by an estimated 30,000 people is under threat from a shortfall in funding.
This year Whitley Bay carnival will take place for one day only, on Saturday May 23, with the usual Sunday programme of music, dance, food and activities at the Spanish City plaza and the evening carnival ball axed due to the financial situation.
The carnival was revived in 2014 after a consultation exercise by community hub charity Whitley Bay Big Local on what improvements people favoured for the town.
A return of the carnival, which had started in the early years of the last century and continued in the 1920s, was one of the choices.
In 2014 the carnival consisted of a small parade and afternoon of live music and street theatre on the Spanish City plaza with an exhibition in the dome.
Two schools and around 250 participants took part and it has developed into a colourful spectacle with the parade this year including 14 schools, five community groups and local bands.
But insufficient funds have cast a cloud over the future of the event, with the outlook described by co-creative director Richard Broderick as “perilous.”
A crowdfunder this year has brought in only £1,472 so far and he has appealed for townspeople and visitors to contribute.
The carnival aims to be at the heart of the community, with around 1,000 helpers and creators beginning work on costumes and parade figures through carnival clubs and joining in the opening procession.
“Whitley Bay carnival is one of the biggest parades in the North East and people love the event. But after this year we will have to sit down and take a hard look at things,” said Richard.
The charity Salto Arts, set up to run the carnival by Richard and co-creative director Carol Alevroyianni, applies each year for Arts Council funding, and also receives a small contribution from North Tyneside Council as it has a presence at the Mouth of the Tyne festival.
Local businesses and sponsors have donated more than £5,000 this year, but the funding total is not sufficient to meet the costs of staging the carnival which range from items like a quadrupling of the cost of event insurance, to £2,500 for parade road closures and £2,000 for storage.
“The carnival is free and people do not need to spend if they don’t want to. It brings the community together and people can have a good time,” said Richard.
“But the funding issue is a threat and it is morale-sapping.”
Carol said: “If visitors and residents each put a pound in the kitty it would make all the difference.
“We put the first event together in our living rooms with artists Annie Sheridan and Sarah Sutton working in Marine Park and Rockliffe schools to create paper costumes. We relied on the creativity of teachers like Lindsay Ford who now leads a carnival club.
“We used the pedestrian streets and road crossings overseen by Rockliffe First School’s lollipop lady. It was tiny and I didn’t think it would happen again.”
This year the parade on May 23 begins at 11am from Whitley Bay station, with music in the afternoon on the Spanish City plaza.
“We will just have one stage on the Plaza this year and street events on Rainbow Corner but we hope it will feel really special,” said Carol.
Highlights will include Tyneside musician Ken Patterson’s newly penned ‘A Rendezvous’ love song to Whitley Bay, while Fanfare Van de Eerste Liefdesnacht from Amsterdam will perform with six local bands, four choirs and school children at 2pm and a family ceilidh at 4.30pm.
Donate to the crowdfunder here.