Latest news with #StPaulsCarnival
ITV News
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- ITV News
St Pauls Carnival: All you need to know about scaled back event for 2025
St Pauls Carnival, celebrating African Caribbean culture in Bristol, is taking place this weekend but without the pomp and circumstance of previous years. Instead, the 'Back A Yard' event is offering a scaled back range of celebrations and promises to be vibrant, marking 'roots of resistance'. What is St Pauls Carnival? The carnival began in 1968 and grew in size and reputation with floats and costumes celebrating African Caribbean culture through song, art, music and movement. A free parade followed a route through the St Pauls area of Bristol, attracting more than 100,000 people and bringing an estimated £9m into the local economy. Dozens of performances took place and afterparties were held late into the night. The Carnival 365 programme also brought the history and heritage of the carnival to communities through workshops and an education programme, estimated to reach more than 6000 students a year. In 2017, St Pauls Carnival Community Interest Company was set up to make a stable and sustainable future for the event. But financial costs continued to hamper efforts. In 2023, the carnival returned after a three year absence, following the covid pandemic. The following year a series of community events were held to mark a scaled down version of the Carnival. Why it's not happening in the normal form Organisers said spiralling costs meant a parade was only possible every other year and it had been hoped a full event would be staged this year. It costs an estimated £500,000 to put on the carnival and although some grant funding has been given in the past a significant amount of fundraising is needed to stage a full event. What's happening instead Events still promise to be vibrant under the 'Back A Yard' programme. On Saturday morning an Elders Brunch will be held in Circomedia, in part to celebrate those in the community who started the celebration more than 50 years ago. There will be food, performances and a traditional singalong. This year's theme is 'Roots of Resistance' and honours the 60th anniversary of the Race Relations Act and the legacy of the Windrush generation. It marks the role of music and culture in protest, joy and identity. The main event is the Community Celebration Day taking place from 1-6pm at Circomedia with activities for children and live performances. Meanwhile between 12 and 2pm there is a Carnival party at Docklands Community Centre. This includes music, flag and mask making, African drumming, food and games.
BBC News
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Community calls for new approach to St Pauls Carnival
There are calls for a new approach to St Pauls Carnival after this year's event was deliberately scaled down. The carnival's organisers said they "reflected on finances" and as such there was no big parade but instead a series of smaller events were held to celebrate Bristol's African and Caribbean a spontaneous street party evolved on the evening of 5 July and the area was filled with thousands of Sharry, the carnival director, told BBC Bristol's Joe Sims the original event had to be scaled down due to a lack of money for appropriate safety measures, which were not considered at the "pop-up" event. He said: "I saw some of the young people climbing up on the scaffolding [at the pop-up event] and part of me is like, that's great, but what if someone falls off? Who pays for the injury and public liability insurance?"It's about getting that balance between making sure that the community can still have that grassroots event, but we as a city take ownership of making sure people are safe when they come." The theme of this year's event was "Roots of Resilience" to commemorate the passing of The Race Relations Act Act was introduced two years after the Bristol Bus Boycott and outlawed discrimination in public places. Many people who attended the "pop-up" carnival told BBC Bristol's Primrose Granville this year's festival had more of a community Burton, 30, said: "It felt like a more community thing. It felt less commercialised - felt less like a money making thing."It was just people coming together as a community."After the event, volunteers arrived early in the morning to clean up the streets. 'Ancestral legacy' Mr Burton, who is a filmmaker, added: "Our ancestors brought this carnival to this city."This carnival shouldn't be dictated by this and that. It's our community event - we were there, we looked after the community and we cleaned up after the community."The carnival director said the clean-up was a "testament to the spirit of the carnival".He said: "Back in the day it was volunteers that would come out, pop up, clean up, a week before pull together all of those different aspects of it."Given we were celebrating the 60th anniversary, the fact that the community did reflect on the ancestral legacy of the carnival - that really does epitomise what we're trying to do at St Pauls."
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Carnival celebrates 60 years of race legislation
A carnival has brought generations together to celebrate the 60th anniversary of legislation against racial discrimination. Celebrating African and Caribbean culture, St Pauls Carnival returned to Bristol as a scaled down event on Saturday after organisers "reflected on finances", director Ricardo Sharry said. Elders were entertained at a brunch, children sang and danced, and poems were performed. The theme was "Roots of Resilience" to commemorate the passing of The Race Relations Act 1965, which was introduced two years after the Bristol Bus Boycott and outlawed discrimination in public places. More news stories for Bristol Watch the latest Points West Listen to the latest news for Bristol "The carnival really epitomises that spirit - people pop up and they share their music and it covers the whole African and Caribbean diaspora so it's really special." Mr Sharry said. He said he hoped the carnival would be "bigger and better next year" after a smaller event, Back A Yard, was deemed to be "more appropriate" this year. Mr Sharry said: "What's quite nice is we've got the older generation, we've got the younger generation, and then the middle generation - people come to the streets and enjoy the carnival." "It's a really nice balance of 'for the community' and 'supported by the community'." Antonette, a poet, said she found writing about her own experiences "cathartic" and was pleased to read her work at the event. "Today was an excellent opportunity for me to perform some of the poems I have written in the past, related to the Windrush generation," she said. Antonette read poems about her arrival in England from Barbados and the prejudice she faced, as well as her experience of racial and verbal abuse in schools, drawing on what her son had been through. "It was lovely to express myself and I saw a lot of nodding in the audience," she said. "I haven't been upset by all the things that happened to me. I fought back." Antonette said St Pauls Carnival brought "different people together". "It's a celebratory event and especially for elders like myself... it was great," she said. "It's a community thing and it's lovely. I hope it will go on forever." Follow BBC Bristol on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630. St Pauls Carnival announces scaled-back programme 'Carnival is the heart of the city' St Pauls carnival celebrates Windrush St Pauls Carnival
ITV News
05-07-2025
- General
- ITV News
Bristol's roots celebrated at scaled down carnival
St Pauls Carnival returned this summer on a smaller scale because of rising costs. However, a host of community events - including an elders brunch - were held.
BBC News
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
St Pauls Carnival announces scaled-back programme
St Pauls carnival has announced scaled-back plans for February, it was announced that the Bristol carnival would be putting on a reduced programme due to ongoing funding year's programme of events is entitled 'Back a Yard' and features spoken word, dance and musical events focused around the theme of Roots of Resistance and the legacy of local activists to mark 60 years since the passing of the Race Relations Act."This year, we're highlighting the activism at the heart of the carnival, sharing our community's legacy with all generations and paving the way for the future," said LaToyah McAllister-Jones, Executive Director of St Pauls Carnival. "Fundraising is crucial to cementing the future of St Pauls Carnival and our 2025 Back A Yard programme will be a key driver of this to help ensure the future of Bristol's most beloved vibrant celebration of African-Caribbean culture," she programme features the traditional Elders Brunch at Circomedia and a free event at the Malcolm X will also a mixture of family friendly and party events taking place across the wider St Pauls area on 5 events are taking place at Lakota, Lost Horizon and Circomedia and the proceeds of sales will go towards funding future carnival 120,000 people attend when the carnival is on in Pauls Carnival said that a full event cost around £500,000 to put on and it relied on sponsorship and community donations to raise the carnival hoped to be back with a fuller schedule in 2026.
