Sun shines for Shrewsbury Carnival

Thousands of people lined the streets for Shrewsbury's annual carnival.

Twenty-two floats paraded through the town centre on Saturday, chee- red by spectators. The town centre was closed to traffic for about two hours as the parade made its way from Smithfield Road, through the town centre and back to the Quarry, where entertainment was taking place.

Carnival chairman Gr- aham Puttock said the event was a huge success and he was delighted with the number of people who turned out to support it.

He said: "We started the day at 5am by putting road closure notices out and advance warning signs. A group of about 15 guys were putting cones out and crowd barriers out - and it's all voluntary."

Festivities got under way in the Quarry at 10am where there were stalls and musical entertainment.

Classic

Mr Puttock said: "The parade went out at about 2pm. I was told there were literally thousands of people around the town. One or two people said they had never seen so many people, which was fantastic.

"There were 22 floats and probably about six bands. There was the town crier from Wellington, our own carnival junior crier and the carnival princess and three attendants in a classic car."

Heading the parade was a fire engine followed by the mayor's car. The Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car also made an appearance.

The parade was made up of groups and organisations, including 100 girl guides to mark their 100th anniversary.

Mr Puttock added: "I was absolutely amazed when I came back to the Quarry, all you could see was people, which was fantastic. We had the Whitchurch dog agility doing a show for us, stalls and all sorts of things."

He added: "There were thousands of people in town, it was unbelievable."

The carnival raises money each year for charities. Last year between £4,500 and £5,000 was distributed to good causes.