Cary Carnival 2025 – The town was buzzing!

Castle Cary was buzzing as crowds turned out to celebrate carnival on a great night for the town.

Encouraged by great weather, an enthusiastic crowd of revellers gathered in Castle Cary last Saturday night to celebrate the tradition and creativity of carnival!

The big carts lit up the narrow ancient streets, with incredibly creative walkers, top twirling majorettes and tip-top bands completing the wonderful procession.

The Bournemouth Carnival aka ‘Spiderman’ Band did a great job of warming the crowd up, and the Blackdown Samba Band kept the party going by playing a toe-tapping set after the procession, outside the Market House.

“It was great to see the community come together for a great night out” continues Society Chair, Malcolm.  “Entrants always say that Cary Carnival is special because the crowd is so warm and welcoming.  We proved that with cheers and dancing in the streets!”

Countess Gytha Primary School had a shoal of glowing underwater creatures to win the Inter Schools Cup, narrowly squeezing Queen Camel Primary School and their gorgeous sea creatures into second place.

“The biggest cheers of the night went to the local entries, especially the primary schools, families and youth groups”  said Carnival Committee Chair, Malcolm Wake.  “The numbers of children and the creativity of the entries was great to see!”

 

Creativity abounded in the walking entries.  Was there really only one person inside Roger Muspratt’s winning super-scary entry The Curse of the Spider King. Some of the most hard-fought categories were in the Juvenile categories, so huge congratulations to parents and participants!  Especially Just Ed with The Cat in the Hat, (best Individual Juvenile), AJ’s Carnival Club for a first glimpse of Santa’s elves in action (best Group Juvenile with prop) and Mini Reveller’s epic Rock cart.

Onto results for the big carts.  It was great to have the mighty Magnum Carnival Club back with their stunning entry Flamenco Fiesta, the crowd loved Hot Rock Carnival Club’s Freight Train, with Kipling Carnival Club winning best overall float rocking their tribute to to Country Music Hillbilly Joe’s!

Finally, congratulations to the sparkling Enigma Twirl Team for high-stepping into first place in the majorettes’ competition.

“Over 70% of the collection goes to local charitable causes so we’re delighted to say that that from both carnivals we raised £2,200.  A very big thank you to our ever-generous community!” said Doug Crosse, new Carnival Treasurer.

The Carnival Society would like to thank everyone; our sponsors, marshals, collectors and the 100’s of other people who help make our big night out happen. It takes a community to put on a carnival!