Charlotte Edmonds is back at the cart with her daughters for Bridgewater Carnival, as thousands are set to line the streets on Saturday. The procession opens the first of eight November events on the Somerset Guy Fawkes Carnival Circuit.
Edmonds, 52, is helping build this year’s cart with Nell and Alice, carrying on a family line she describes as carnival through and through. “I do come from a family of 'carnivalites',” she said, adding, “and my grandparents and great grandparents were carnivelites too.”
Renegades Carnival Club in Bridgwater
Renegades Carnival Club was founded in 1966 and now has approximately 50 members, ranging in age from 14 to 50-plus years old. Katie Whiting, the club captain and a teacher, said joining was “kind of like a rite of passage,” and added, “My mum was actually pregnant with me when she became involved.”
Whiting also said, “A lot of what we do is in memory of people that aren't here - we do it for them always.” That gives the procession a practical edge: the cart is not built in a single burst, but in evenings after work, with families and club members putting in steady hours before Saturday’s run.
Bridgwater and Somerset circuit
Bridgwater is described as the home of carnival on a town sign, and it is thought to be the UK’s oldest carnival and one of the largest. The town’s procession is the first of eight events in November on the main Guy Fawkes Carnival Circuit across Somerset, following carnivals in September and October in Frome, Wellington, Ilminster, Chard, Taunton, Wincanton, Castle Cary and Ansford.
The scale is not just ceremonial. Bridgwater is reported to bring in £4m to the local economy, which is why the Saturday procession matters as more than a date on the calendar. For readers planning to attend, the immediate reality is simple: the town is moving into its busiest stretch, and the cart-building work has to finish before the streets fill.
How many carts will take part in this year’s Bridgwater procession is not stated, but the turnout expected on Saturday is enough to make the event a full-town operation rather than a single parade. That is the point of the carnival in Bridgwater: the build, the crowd and the route all meet on one night.
