Carnival 2000: Report

Carnival Report 2000

The Helmdon Carnival celebrated its “18th birthday” on Bank holiday Monday. Despite a shower or two, the weather turned sunny, and the crowds came and enjoyed themselves.

The Army Cadet Band led the parade. The prize for the best float was won by the Acorns, with the Bridge Players second and the HYHO’s third.

The main attractions included a parachute display, line dancing, a sheep shearing demonstration, archery, the Benetton Formula 1 car and vintage ploughing. The stalls were manned by village organisations and there were amusements to delight the children.

The 62 classes attracted many entrants to the Produce and Craft Show and a large crowd enjoyed the displays in the marquee.

This annual event continues to be a major draw and each year and the wealth of talent increases. The tremendous variety of ideas and designs drew many favourable comments from the judges and public alike. Apart from the usual vegetables, this year produced many alternative classes, ranging from ceramics and jewellery to flapjacks and foliage arrangements, with a variety of artistic drawing and paintings, in charcoal, watercolours, pencil and oil.

In the children’s section, the youngsters excelled with their masks, collages, pictures and models, whilst one youngster thrashed all the adults with a marvellous example of a home-made birthday card!

Jack Ayres won the trophy for the vegetable section, with Doreen England collecting the cup for the most points in the home produce section . The Pete Lidgley Memorial cup was presented to Mr and Mrs Hardiman and Fiona Storer, joint winners of the best vegetable plot, judged in July. The 8 and under junior cup went to Stephanie Ashby and the 7 and under to Amelia Stubbs. The trophy presented by Bloomers Florists was won by Ann Wilson.

We are generously supported by our commercial sponsors and are very grateful for their continued interest. This year we thank Julie Potter, D A Coleman, Chris Gartside, Liz Humphrey, David Mumford, Monogram Company, Texprep Printers and Tesco. We also have numerous individual sponsors and we gratefully acknowledge their support.

Read what the papers said…

Banbury Guardian | Brackley Post