The Carnival Concerts act as a great warm up for the clubs for their dance routines and choreography before the main carnival event and runs for 12 nights, in 2025 from Monday 29th September until Saturday 11th October (excluding Sunday 4th October). The Concert is itself a great spectacle, each night always dells out and has a prestigious local following.
Between the main acts provided by the 12 carnival clubs and 2 dance troupes that participate we have “front of curtain” acts that fill the time with music, singing and magic tricks to entertain the audience whilst the main acts change their scenery.
Tickets for the show will be available at our online shop (preferred option) or the Carnival Centre when available. At the moment we are unable to give a date or seating plan due to the Town Hall being refurbished.The new system we used last year called Ticket Source worked really well with all nights virtually sold out so will be used again in 2025. When available the page loads that will let you know what seats are available, you select which area/price you want seats in and how many seats you want, the next page will then load with all the seats available for the chosen night you then select which seats you want, they will be added to your basket, please note there will also be a handling charge of 4% plus vat, so 4.8%, which will be shown on the screen before you pay. So for example buying two seats in the stalls @£18 would be charged at £36 plus £1.73 so £37.73 total. Once you have paid for your seat tickets they will be emailed to you so no postage charges unless you pick the postage option?
We would ask that you do not leave odd seats when you select your seats, there is a programme working in the background to try and ensure this does not happen, “orphan” seats cost us money so you may find that if you leave an odd seat you will not be able to purchase the seat you want unless you close up, this is not an error, it is a system which hopefully give us maximum benefit and you more choice?
Seat tickets sold in the Carnival Centre will not attract a handling charge as you will have to collect them personally, we do not post them out.
If you wish to avoid the queues you can always become a “Friend of Bridgwater Carnival” and order your priority tickets in advance, see the Friends Page.
Contact our Entertainment Officer, Sarah Humphrey for further details.
Concert Judging
You may wonder at the results sometimes and we often get asked how did we arrive at the decision we did? So to give a better insight as to what goes on behind the scenes in producing the results some explanation may be of benefit.
We have a panel of eight judges, all with experience of stage production or associated skills, each judge watches the concert at least twice, once each week. To give you an idea for what the judges are looking for, the club and the dancing troupe performances are judged against:
- Entertainment value – 50 points
- Presentation of theme – 50 points
- Vocal ability/choice of music – 25 points
- Choreography/stillness – 25 points
- Scenery – 25 points
- Lighting and effect – 25 points
- Costumes – 25 points
- Make-up – 25 points
The front of curtain acts are judged against the following criteria:
- Entertainment value – 50 points
- Presentation and choice of music – 50 points
- Aptitude – 75 points
- Attire – 25 points
Once all the results are in we then total them up deducting the highest and lowest placing each entry receives to ensure any potential points wide of the mark are excluded and the results are then calculated on the points balance. These results are then announced at the close of the Concert on the second Saturday performance.
Carnival Concert Auditions
Carnival Concert Photos
Concert Results
See the results of the Carnival Concerts, 1986 – 2024 results are obtainable from the Archive section.
