Worcester Carnival: reaction from planning committee

Worcester Carnival was dealt a bad hand with the combination of poor weather conditions throughout the day and England's Euro 2024 quarter-final starting at 5pm. 

Barry MacGabhann, one of Worcester Carnival's committee, felt the event had been a success.

He said: "It was as good as we could have expected with the weather and the football.

"It was always going to be a challenge with British weather. We still had all our stalls and entertainment."

The Carnival had been scheduled to begin at 3pm, with the route through the City Centre lasting around two hours, before returning to Pitchcroft around 5pm. However, England's quarter-final matchup against Switzerland was only confirmed earlier in the week, which left too little time for the committee to reschedule plans. 

Mr MacGabhann said: "To move the carnival back an hour, we would've had to redo all the safety checks.

"At the end of the day, it's about the safety of the people involved in the event and it's not that simple to just change dates and times.

"The football could've been a different day and we wouldn't be thinking about this."

Mr MacGabhann also responded to comments from visitors about the diminished size of the parade in comparison to previous years. 

He said: "I wouldn't say that there are fewer floats.

"We have a lot more walking and self-propelled groups.

"Everyone is conscious of the environment and diesel fumes so a lot of people choose to be walking groups now, and I think that will become more common."

Despite this year's event only just finishing, planning for next year's carnival will be underway soon.

"It's an all-year-round event to plan and we're only a small committee of six people," he said.

Worcester Carnival returned in its current form in 2017, after the original event that had run for several decades throughout the 20th century was cancelled in the 1990s.

The 2025 edition will be the seventh event planned by the committee.