The Ramsgate Town Carnival Committee would like to thank everyone who helped put on the 2021 Carnival.
All those who worked so hard to make sure the event happened; the Council workers from Thanet District Council and Ramsgate Town Council; the Health and Safety Operatives and the Highways Advisors; the Marshals, who kept the parade on the move and safe; the Fairground people and the stall holders at the Fair; the First Aiders who were on duty but luckily had no major incidents to deal with; all the volunteers who gave up their time to judge the classes and of course the support of our own Mayor of Ramsgate, Councillor Raushan Ara and the visiting Mayors; but mainly the people of Ramsgate who turned out to support us.
We were making arrangements for the Carnival to take place on July 25, 2021, as we pointed out in the May/June issue of the Ramsgate Town Council CommunityAd Magazine, but the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, did not lift all the COVID-19 restrictions on the proposed date in June, which left us with a dilemma as to whether the event should go ahead or not. The Committee made a decision to postpone the event (the first time in 33 years) and to hold the Carnival on Sunday September 12, 2021 instead. Once we had confirmed a new date, we were very apprehensive as to whether we had done the right thing! Would people still come to watch? What would the weather be like? We didn’t have to worry.
The day dawned bright and dry and we could not have had better weather even if it had been in July. The number of entries for the parade were a little down on previous years, but the quality was better. We had 26 entries pull out in the last two weeks beforehand, which was disheartening, but the reasons were all mainly due to COVID and not being able to get together. Those who did enter rose to the spirit of Carnival and we had a colourful, musical and happy parade including four bands, some who had travelled from Bournemouth to be with us.
We would like to thank all the people in the crowds who came out to support the Carnival and to enjoy the spectacle which is part of our town’s seaside tradition. Our official bucket street collection raised a wonderful £764.81, which is up on the last carnival in 2019 and will give us a good start to plan for the next carnival in 2022. We were one of only four carnivals that took place in 2021 in Kent and that helps us retain the title of being one of the top five Carnivals in Kent. All the visiting Carnival Courts from other Kent and Essex towns had an enjoyable time and want to come back again, as we hope all the other parade entries will want to return too. We believe we have found some new people who wish to take over the Carnival in future years and we will offer them all the support we can. We wish them good luck, we hope that they will be able to keep to the traditional date of the last Sunday in July (July 31, 2022) and we will see you and many more there on the day. Thank you again to everyone.