LETTER: 'Wow, how good was that'

Wow, how good was that? As I write this the morning after the most amazing Ilkley Carnival, I am aching in places I didn’t know existed and I know I’m not alone amongst the organising committee. Checking my app last night told me I had done over 34,000 steps and walked 26.4 miles yesterday.

The parade was spectacular. It was the largest ever and it was great to welcome Burley Oaks, Addingham and Askwith schools to the regular Ilkley-based schools and groups. The best in parade winners, Ashlands Primary School, were exceptional and fully deserved their title. It is humbling to see the whole town turn out and line the streets for the parade each year and it must be a wonderful experience for the children participating.

On the carnival showground the entertainment was top class. The headline act, Defying Gravity, were certainly one of the most engaging we have ever had and were supported by some amazing local talent.

There is no event in Ilkley that brings our community together like Ilkley Carnival does. We are proud to say the event is run by the community for the community. The hard-working committee are all amateurs, mostly with full time jobs and lives to fit in around the carnival. As the carnival continues to grow into an event that is now attracting regional appeal so does the time and pressure constraints. We could not do this without the community rallying around us and making Ilkley Carnival one of the top attractions every May Day.

We had almost 300 volunteers assisting us with what is now a three-day set-up and take down plus duties on the day such as staffing gates and traffic marshalling. Without this community involvement there would be no Ilkley Carnival. A couple of special mentions. We had Charlotte Hatch who not only performed as part of the talented ‘The Lost Embers’ in the SORM acoustic marquee on Monday afternoon but was on site earlier that day at 6.30am for a few hours helping to finalise the site set-up. Similarly, Nic and the amazing Ilkley Gym Club assisted all weekend and still had the energy to perform in the Ilkley BID/Discover Ilkley main arena.

We introduced some new measures this year ahead of impending new legislation following the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017. This will ensure we continue to be one of the safest and best run events in the district but this does come at a cost. We have seen some of our costs increase by over 50% this year and that did necessitate a price rise on the gates to ensure the event remained viable and sustainable.

Unfortunately, the changes that are coming are going to affect the way all of us live. It will impact especially on community events and the reality is that many will fold over the next 12-18 months. As a community we need to support these if we want to continue to enjoy them. Events also need to support each other through the sharing of equipment and expertise. Baildon Gala sent us eight staff trained to operate road closures this year, reciprocating our assistance to them. The Carnival has lots of equipment that is already used by many local groups and is available to help to reduce costs for other community events.

You can support these events in many ways. Sponsorship and direct volunteering are obvious areas but there are things all of us can do. Pretty much every Ilkley Carnival post over the last month has been liked or shared by David Shaw MBE. That small task that costs nothing and takes a matter of seconds, assists us greatly. It provides awareness, tags in new people and raises the profile of the event that makes it more attractive to sponsors. On which note, I’d like to say a huge thank you once again to this year’s main sponsors Ilkley BID, Bradford Grammar School for providing sponsorship for the fifth year, our new sponsors for 2024, SD Property Group and Fletchers Scaffolding in Leeds who generously donated time and materials to make the impossible possible with our new entrance and ticket gates!

So finally, a big thank you to all who made Ilkley Carnival so amazing this year and we’ll see you again on 5 May 2025 for an even bigger one!