- 2018 is the 413th anniversary of The Gunpowder Plot.
- Distance wise the procession route is just over 7 miles long, and the carnival will take more than 2 hours to pass any one viewing point.
- Over 2,000 people are involved with the 98 entries in this year’s event.
- Over 7 Megawatts of electricity will power the 44 carnival carts taking part in this year’s carnival procession.
- Over 1,000,000 individual lights (lamps and LEDs) will illuminate the skyline as the carts meander around the streets of Bridgwater on Saturday 3 November.
- 1,600 traffic cones, 200 road traffic signs, 170 barriers, and 34 traffic marshals will be facilitating the 31 closed roads. The equipment will be set out by the carnival committee’s road traffic team in readiness for the 2018 carnival, with the first being laid out at 06:30 hours on carnival day, and the last collected at 03:30 hours the following morning. 80 radios will be in operation during the event. One road traffic marshal will be travelling 66 miles from Malmsbury to help out on carnival day.
- This year Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival has 70 friends of carnival (formerly patrons). For more information visit bridgwatercarnival.org.uk/associates/friends.
- All 2,270 grandstand seats were sold 6 weeks prior to the big day. In addition, 170 corporate hospitality packages were available for the big night, all of which included a grandstand ticket.
- 44 trade stands will line the procession route on carnival night.
- 76 coaches / minibuses have already pre-booked to attend Bridgwater Carnival 2018.
- Over 180 people are expected to take part in this year’s squibbing display, 15 minutes after the procession has finished. The squibs are 300mm long by 200mm in circumference and hold approximately 1lb of gunpowder. 2018 marks 302 years since the first recorded evidence of squibbing in Bridgwater back in 1716.
- 37 cups and trophies are awarded on carnival night by our 79 Before the results are announced on the evening, 4,684 separate judging scores will need to be entered onto laptops to ascertain which entries came where.
- 30 companies and organisations are official sponsors of Bridgwater Carnival 2018.
- 7,629 people like the official Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival Facebook page.
- 4,713 people follow Bridgwater Carnival’s official Twitter account.
- In the last 12 months, our official website (bridgwatercarnival.org.uk), has received 195,445 hits, including 9,701 from computer users living in America, 666 from France, 461 from Azerbaijan, 406 from Spain, 363 from Germany, 291 from Australia, and 231 from Canada. During carnival day in 2017, 39,874 computer users visited the website.
- Various research projects and studies have concluded that Bridgwater Carnival is worth an estimated £4,000,000 annually to the local economy – £2,000,000 during the weekend of the carnival and a further £2,000,000 from carnival related activities throughout the year.
- The FREE Bridgwater Carnival app, which is available from Google Play and the App Store, has been downloaded by 1,449
- The Shepherd Family CC are expected to be the entrant who will be travelling the furthest distance to take part competitively in the carnival. The group are from Portsmouth in Hampshire and will be travelling 106 miles to Bridgwater for the big day.
- Over the last 20 years Bridgwater Carnival related activities have raised over £504,357 for the official Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival charity and other local supported charities. At this year’s event over 350 collectors will be on the streets on carnival night, supporting the 8 collection carts in the procession and collecting money for Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival and 38 other charities.
- 2018 sees a number of carnival clubs celebrating special anniversaries for the number of years they have taken part in Bridgwater Carnival:
80 years – Centurion CC
60 years – Globe CC
50 years – YMCA CC
40 years – Luckington CC
40 years – Harlequin CC
30 years – Wilfs CC
Congratulations to all. - Tractor driver, Dave Speed, from Bridgwater’s Cavaliers CC, will be driving his 197th consecutive carnival at Bridgwater Carnival 2018.
- There will be 30 smoke machines on Globe CC’s 2018 entry Captain Morgan’s Revenge.
- Club members from Coleford based Huckyduck CC have carved and painted over 10,000 bricks for their 2018 entry One for the Road.
- Luckington CC have entered Bridgwater Carnival in the feature, tableaux and comic classes during their 40 years of taking part.
- Club members from Bridgwater’s Marina Sydenham Juvenile CC have made over 450 tiles and paving slabs for their 2018 entry Graffiti #Villains.
- Ottery St Mary based Otters CC plan to perform at 16 carnivals this year. The club’s first carnival of the year took place way back in September, and their last will be in the middle of December. South Brent CC will be appearing in their 21st carnival of the year when they take part in Bridgwater Carnival 2018.
- The combined ages of all 40 members from Bridgwater based Wills CC is close to 1,000
- The first physical person to portray Guy Fawkes at Bridgwater Carnival was Joseph Spriggs who led the parade in 1896 on the Guy Fawkes cart, a tradition which survives to this very day. Since then archives show only 12 other people have had the honour of portraying this notorious character.
- Arts Council England has once again recognised the valuable role which Bridgwater Carnival performs in the local community by awarding a grant of £32,125 for 2018.