Carnival Postponed
It is with deep regret and after much consideration that our Committee have reached the decision to postpone this year’s North Petherton Carnival procession.
There are a number of reasons why we have reached this decision. Firstly, it is unknown at this stage, whether the social distancing restrictions will still be in place in November. Listening to medical opinions, we are unlikely to have a vaccine within the time scale. It is highly probable that such restrictions will remain in place. We would therefore be irresponsible to attempt to go ahead as policing the social distancing would prove extremely difficult, if not impossible.
Secondly, currently clubs are unable to build and it is unknown if they would be able to produce an entry in time if we went ahead. Yes, we could have walking entries only, but it would still demand a similar level of input and expense as the usual procession. We, as with many others, are currently unable to fund raise and so it would significantly impact the financial status of our Committee, potentially jeopardising future carnivals.
We feel it is more important to protect the future of you our crowd and carnival as a whole than attempt to go ahead this year, at any cost. From the organisational aspect it also very unlikely we would get support from the local Safety Advisory Group members, e.g. local councils, police, fire, ambulance, highways, etc. and the other individuals and organisations whose support is vital to us being able to proceed with a safe event.
We are deeply concerned for those local charities that benefit from our event, so if you do have any spare income to donate, please, please, help those who have supported us for years.
You can find links to many of them on this webpage
www.northpethertoncarnival.org.uk/those-we-support
We do have a patronage scheme and if you wish to help us then please use the form from this link to make contact with us.
Finally, and most importantly, we wish to protect our NHS and not arrange an event that has the potential to spread this deadly virus and overload our local NHS.
We trust that you, the public, will accept this decision as the only responsible one we could have made. Please be assured that providing Covid-19 has a vaccine and treatment in time for November 2021 we will be back, lighting up the streets of North Petherton with a Spectacular 70th Carnival.
Stay safe and please protect our NHS