News / Politics
Is St Paul’s Carnival set to return in 2017?
St Paul’s Carnival will go ahead next year or the year after, the mayor has promised ahead of a meeting of council chiefs to discuss the festival’s future.
Carnival was cancelled last year and will not be held this year after the council and Arts Council England pulled funding amid allegations of mismanagement.
Marvin Rees announced at his first cabinet meeting on Tuesday that he had already spoken to organisers about ways to make sure the festival is held in 2017 or 2018.
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Estella Tincknell, deputy mayor who also holds the city’s culture brief on Rees’ cabinet, told Bristol24/7 on Wednesday that she was due to meet with stakeholders on Friday to discuss a report produced by a carnival commission which was launched after funds were pulled last year.
Tincknell said: “Marvin and I are fully behind St Paul’s Carnival, we think it is a very important part of Bristol’s cultural identity.
“We want to find ways of supporting it, but what I don’t want to do is impose solutions. This has to be community-led.”
St Paul’s Carnival was cancelled in 2015 after the board of St Paul’s Afrikan Caribbean Carnival Ltd said it could not stage the event due to growing concerns over managing the 100,000 people street party.
The previous council administration, under George Ferguson, withdrew annual funding of £57,000 to the board in November last year, saying it has broken its funding criteria by failing to host an event twice in the last four years.
The council’s decision also meant that £271,566 from 2015 to 2018 from Arts Council England was also withdrawn.
Mr Rees said at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting: “We are committed to making sure it goes ahead with the commission when they come back with their report.
“The question I had for them was did they think it was viable to come in 2018 or 2017? They are being a bit quiet about it, but I think they are very keen to come back next year.
“But I think there are lessons we can learn from this about the skills mismatch across different communities in Bristol.
“I want to ensure expertise that are available to certain parts of the city and community are available to other parts of the community and their events as well.”
Top photo from Sam Saunders