Carnival pram-push plan to overcome 2007 Polegrove rain-off

THE race is on to raise the £7,000 needed to stage this year's Bexhill Carnival
By The Newsroom
Published 18th Feb 2008, 15:43 BST
Updated 7th Jun 2018, 20:16 BST

Heavy rain at last year's Party In The Polegrove curtain-raiser to the July Carnival Day wrecked the live music night which has become Carnival's biggest money-spinner.

Now, with barely 1,500 left in the coffers, the town's small and totally voluntary Carnival Committee is looking all the fund-raising ideas it can get.

New for this year is a round-town pram-push.

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Clubs, pubs, societies, groups of friends - anyone who can make up teams of three, decorate a pram and dash around the town raising money - will be welcome to join in the fun on Tuesday, July 22.

Carnival chairman Nim Whitmarsh said this week: "It will be 1 per person to enter. There will be an early evening start from Polegrove.

"No motorised vehicles allowed and no shopping trolleys...!

"We are currently contacting pubs in the town inviting them to take part.

"Each team will be required to down a minimum of one drink per team in every pub taking part when they call in to get their forms signed to say they have visited.

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"Teams will be issued with collecting tins and will required to go round each of the pubs collecting as much cash as they can.

"Three trophies will be up for grabs:

*One for the team doing the fastest time

*One for the best-dressed pram, rider and pushers

*One for the team raising the most money

"We are still trying to get a sponsor for the event if anyone would like to come forward."

Fund-raising this weekend includes a jumble sale at Our Lady Of The Rosary Church Hall, Southlands Road, Sidley, on Saturday from 11am to 1pm - admission 20p - plus a free-admission race night at Bexhill Amateur Athletic Club from 8pm.

Undeterred by last year's rain-off, the Carnival Committee has already booked Us Drifters for this year's Friday, July 25 Party and a Roy Orbison tribute singer and plans to sign-up local bands.

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But one venture the Carnival Committee has tried over the past two years will NOT be repeated.

To ease congestion at the Polegrove gates on Carnival Day itself, the committee dropped the admission charge in 2006 and again in 2007.

The chairman said: "Instead, we had honesty buckets and invited people to make donations.

"They were taking the mickey.

"It worked out at about a penny a head...."