Brighton Carnival launch evening

Sunday 12 July 2009

By Lizzie Deane

Brighton Carnival proved to be bigger and better than ever this year when it paraded through the streets on Sunday 12th July.

Launch party

To offer an early taster, the organisers arranged their launch party well in advance on 29th May, with a cocktail evening event at the Ship Hotel.

Those invited included representatives from local community and arts organisations, local writers, politicians, and those taking part in the parade. Brazilian drummers and DJs, local bands and more kept everyone entertained while much rum and traditional Caribbean dishes were consumed and all the guests were enticed to learn to dance the Samba.

The first low-carbon carnival parade in the UK

This year the Green Wave Mini-Festival joined the celebrations with stalls and more at the Carnival Village at Madeira Drive. A unique aspect of Brighton Carnival is that it is the first low-carbon carnival parade in the UK. The aim is to see people dancing and active on the streets and not on the back of a truck. The vehicles on parade were fuelled by plant oil mixes, electric, solar and pedal-power only, so the air would be clean for everyone to enjoy.

Parade Day is such a big celebration because it is the culmination of the hard work and dedication of community groups, youth clubs and secondary schools across the city.  Brighton Carnival has been running workshops in the skills of costume making and choreography and also provides funds and support to local groups to work with a professional carnival artist, to buy materials and to hire in sound systems and green fuel generators for the parade.

To find out more about the parade and other Carnival details, log onto www.brightoncarnival.co.uk