1. – Distance wise, it is just over 2 miles from the very first entry to the very last entry in the parade, and it will take 2½ hours to pass any one viewing point.
2. – Over a ¼ of a million light bulbs will light the skyline as the carts meander around the streets of Bridgwater.
3. – 18 Megawatts of electricity will power the 50 carnival carts taking part in this year’s carnival procession.
4. – Over 2,000 people are involved with the 128 entries in this year’s event.
5. – 1200 traffic cones, 176 road traffic signs, 770 crowd control barriers and 50 road closures will be set out by six members of the carnival committee in readiness for the 2013 carnival. The first are laid at 06:30 hours on carnival day, and the last collected at 03:00 hours the following morning. We will have 38 people manning road closure points during the event.
6. – Thanks to the support and help from Sedgemoor District Council and other local businesses over 6,000 car parking spaces will be available on carnival day.
7. – 475 collectors will be on the streets on carnival night shaking their 500 collection buckets and are expected to collect over ½ a million coins.
8. – Over the last 30 years, over £660,000 has been collected at Bridgwater Carnival and shared between local charities and Bridgwater Carnival.
9. – 26 charities (including the Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival charity) will benefit from the 2013 Bridgwater Carnival collection.
10. – This year Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival has 77 patrons. For more information visit Patrons.
11. – All of the 1,803 grandstand seats were sold two weeks prior to the big day.
12. – 48 trade stands will line the procession route on carnival night.
13. – 185 people are expected to take part in the squibbing display, 15 minutes after the procession has finished. This will beat the previous record of 178 squibbers set at Bridgwater Carnival 2005.
14. – 37 cups and trophies are awarded on carnival night by our 76 judges.
15. – At least 40 coaches / minibuses will be attending Bridgwater Carnival 2013, and already 1 coach company is advertising a trip to Bridgwater Carnival 2014.
16. – 50,000 publicity flyers have been sent to motorway service stations, event attractions and tourist information centres throughout the country.
17. – 1,347 people are members of the Bridgwater Carnival Facebook group, and 933 people like the new Facebook page.
18. – 1,807 people follow Bridgwater Carnival’s Twitter account.
19. – 128,129 people have visited our official website (www.bridgwatercarnival.org.uk) in the last 12 months, with over 20,100 visiting in October 2013. Between 20 and 27 October (inclusive) it received over 1000 daily hits – a total of 10,158 hits in the 8 days!
20. – 35 companies and organisations are official sponsors of Bridgwater Carnival 2013.
21. – 900 low energy bulbs light Bridgwater Carnival’s official Guy Fawkes cart which traditionally leads the procession.
22. – In the last 9 years, Gremlins CC have taken the coveted first spot at Bridgwater Carnival on 9 occasions.
23. – 2013 is the 408th anniversary of The Gunpowder Plot.
24. – This year 18 local schools are taking part in initiatives organised by Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival Committee, all designed to engage younger people with carnival related activities. 160 children are taking part in the children’s dance parade on carnival day, and 28 carnival masks seen in and around the town centre have been decorated by these schools.
25. – Mandinga Arts from South West London will travel 156 miles to take part in Bridgwater Carnival 2013 and Shademakers will travel 111 miles from the Isle of Wight. Budleigh Salterton Carnival Club will travel the furthest to Bridgwater with a carnival cart – a total of 50 miles.
