Carnival 2008

As with every year the Carnival was a huge success. Over 5000 people are estimated as having attended on the day and despite the one shower it was still a great day for walking around the stalls and marquees in the sun and enjoying Balsall Heath’s biggest community event of the year.

Procession

In a similar vein as the year before, the Balsall Heath Carnival procession was forced to take to the pavements as once again organisers were left with no choice by the City Council’s Transport Department. As with last year Council officers forced the carnival procession off the road by demanding over £6,000 to enable the procession. The money, which would have been more than the entire carnival costs, would have been used to pay for road closures, contractors, signs and the redirection of traffic, even though for 30 years or more the carnival organisers managed to lead the procession along the roads safely without causing more than a few minutes inconvenience to local traffic. The carnival managed to collect £149.09 through a street collection.

Support

With our local councillors putting their full support behind the call for an end to the City’s obsession for unnecessary and unsupportive restrictions to community events, it is hoped that the 2009 road procession for Balsall Heath Carnival and other events throughout the city will once more be allowed to continue.

Thank you

The Carnival Committee would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped with the 2008 carnival. In particular we would like to thank local councillors Nahim Khan and Salma Yaqoob for their involvement in the judging of the procession. With the theme of the carnival being Balsall Heath is Our Planet, the Committee would like to thank Ecotricity and Be Birmingham for their support and contribution. For helping to make the carnival volunteers stand out, the Committee would like to give a big thank you to N. N. Daya Printers on Stoney Lane for their support. We would also like to thank ‘Charlton King Scouts’, from Gloucestershire who rescued us by supplying marquees and Simon and Henry (the pony) from Saddlechariot who helped by leading the procession and moving heavy equipment. We would like to thank the Community Chest for their financial support. Thanks must also go to the Kings Christian Centre Youth group and their friends for the help that they gave at the end of the day, litter picking and making sure that we left the park cleaner than we found it!

Finally, we would like to thank everyone for their help and support, be it big or small, for without that help we would not have been able to hold the event and it would not have been such a fantastic occasion for the whole community.