Carnival to move to bi-annual full scale event
Returning for the first time to Bristol’s streets since 2019, this year’s Carnival was a great success.
The event attracted in excess of its usual numbers, with well over 100,000 people marking Bristol’s iconic celebration of African Caribbean culture and paying homage to its founders with the Learning from Legends theme.
Feedback from across the city, the public and emergency services has been overwhelmingly positive, with this year’s carnival being described as the friendliest and safest ever staged.
We are now looking to the future of the event – the only one of its kind in the city that unites audiences to celebrate African Caribbean culture. Conversations are now planned with city representatives, funders, and supporters to determine how St Pauls Carnival can return in future years.
Executive Director, LaToyah McAllister-Jones said:
“We are all buzzing from an incredible event. I would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who came and made the day so memorable.
“We are very grateful for support from the Arts Council, Bristol City Council, and partner agencies across the city together with the community of St Pauls and our sponsors and supporters, without them the 2023 event would not have happened.
“Our attention now turns to the future and, as a fundraising arts organisation, we still need to make people aware that it is only with public generosity and support that we can put this event on in the future.
“This year’s carnival also helped further test the viability of the current funding model and the challenges faced to generate enough funds year-on-year. As a result, we now plan to stage a full-scale carnival every two years, with 2024 seeing the return to our community-led Back-a-Yard format which we successfully ran during the pandemic years. We will also continue our ongoing year-round initiatives, including our highly popular schools’ and education programme which forms part of Carnival 365.
“The event landscape has changed in this post Covid era, and we are seeing other non-ticket events experiencing similar pressures to us. We thank everyone who donated and supported us this year, however, the reality is that only a very small proportion of people contribute compared with those who attend.
“We have to raise in excess of £250,000 – 50% of the cost to safely run an event of this scale in Bristol. As a free-to-attend street event which gets a small proportion of donations compared to other events in the city, we cannot sustain running the full carnival every year.
“Our message is clear – if you want St Pauls Carnival back on the streets in all its authentic glory – we need to recognise and accept its true cost and work together to make it happen.”