Town gears-up for Carnival 2008

The US Drifters and Roy Orbison tribute artist Bary Stal will be augmented by local live bands in a show which gets under way at 6pm includes a display by the Diamond Dancers and culminates in the dusk firework display which is a Carnival tradition.

Admission to the Party In The Polegrove is 5 for adults, 2 for children under 15 and 12 for a group ticket admitting two adults and two children.

Carnival will be given a big push-off on Tuesday with the first of what is hoped will prove to be an annual event.

Teams from the town's clubs and pubs compete in a mad-cap pram race around the town centre's pubs, raising cash both for Carnival and for the charities of their choice.

The race gets under way from Bexhill West in Terminus Road at 7.30pm.

The week has also sees the junior and youth five-a-side football tournaments fought out in Polegrove on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, starting at 5pm.

Saturday, July 26 is Carnival Day.

Bexhill's Carnival Court girls will have pride of place at the head of a procession which in addition to visiting carnival courts from across the South East will feature the Neil Robertson Academy Pipe Band, the Expedient Jazz Band, Section Five Drummers and Eastbourne's Kingfishger Band.

"Television in the UK" is the theme for floats entered in tomorrow's Carnival procession.

Carnival committee chairman and procession organiser Nim Whitmarsh said: "I have got a lot of newcomers entered for the procession, which is very encouraging.

"I am still waiting for a lot of the regulars to send in their entry forms. If they come in as usual in addition to the necomers we should be in for a good procession."

As usual, the procession will form-up in Turkey Road for judging before moving off at 1pm following the customary route down through Sidley, past Bexhill Hospital, through Old Town and around the town centre before entering the Polegrove arena for the prizegiving and final parade.

Entry to Polegrove tomorrow will be 1. An experiment in which the Carnival Committee dispensed with an entry fee in favour of collection boxes met with such a mean response that it has had to re-introduce the admission charge.