Fun-loving Whitley Bay summons carnival spirit
Locals get their glad rags on for holiday high jinks
What’s good for Rio and Notting Hill can’t do Whitley Bay any harm, so townsfolk and visitors got into the carnival spirit over the bank holiday weekend.
If you headed for the seaside town for a bit of peace and quiet… big mistake!
The joint was jumping and photographer Paul Norris was on hand to savour the atmosphere and capture some of the action.
Whitley Bay Carnival has its roots in the town’s resort heyday when thousands of Scottish holidaymakers, released simultaneously by factory hooters, joined the rush to the beaches, pubs and amusements.
Local landladies kept them housed and fed according to strict timetables and made hay while the sun – hopefully – shone.
That business dwindled with the arrival of package holidays and the guaranteed sun of the Mediterranean.
Whitley Bay managed to sustain its party atmosphere into the 21st Century but then bars started to fall into disrepair and a rise in crime and anti-social behaviour tarnished its image.
Then, in 2010, came the Big Local programme which saw the National Lottery Community Fund distribute a total of £1.1m to 150 English neighbourhoods to be spent over 10 to 15 years.
The aim was to bring lasting positive change by increasing resilience and restoring civic pride.
Whitley Bay, where some locals were galvanised into action, got a chunk of the money and a Big Local consultation revealed a desire to bring back the long lost carnival.
So in 2014 the Whitley Bay Carnival made a tentative return, a modest parade and an afternoon of music and street theatre. No roads had to be closed but 2,000 spectators turned up.
A charity called Salto Arts Productions was set up by co-directors Carol Alevroyianni and Richard Broderick to deliver the carnival and it has grown over the years.
This year 2,000 people were involved in its creation – as many as watched it just over a decade ago.
As the carnival has swelled, so have the crowds, with an estimated 30,000 people lining streets last year and record numbers turning out over the recent bank holiday weekend.
The theme this year was Journeys, with the carnival parade – on foot, no vehicles – the highlight of two days and two nights of live music, street theatre and food.
On Sunday afternoon there were ‘heritage’ games such as egg and spoon races, bean bag hurling and tug o’ war.
Lizzie Lowe, equally accomplished on steel pans and drums, brought her new Corico Collective to the stage alongside acclaimed musicians Alastair Anderson (concertina) and Bradley Creswick (fiddle).
Gustavo Andrade and the Brasukas, Roda De Samba Newcastle and The Belta Reivers entertained in defiance of strong winds and to accompanying creaks and groans from the stage marquee.
According to Salto Arts Productions, over the years the carnival has attracted £566,000 in grants and commercial sponsorship while generating an estimated £3,648,000 in visitor spend – this on top of the funding from Big Local.
It has also enabled an estimated 12,000 children to attend dance and visual arts workshops.
Community music groups have been funded and nurtured by the carnival and it has created work for artists and training opportunities for young and emerging talent.
But it has also brought back a priceless splash of colour and fun – as you can see from the pictures Paul Norris took on one of his livelier assignments.
Was our intrepid photographer appropriately dressed in sequins and feather boa?
We may never know.