Kenilworth Carnival coming this Saturday - with more floats than first thought

Part of the funfair coinciding with this year's carnival

Organisers were worried about initially low number of floats ready for the parade, but after an urgent appeal, more quickly signed up.

Kenilworth Carnival committee member Paul Reilly is now feeling a lot more confident about the day and said the higher number of floats would provide a ‘great spectacle’.

He said: “We’re hoping to have a really good carnival this year. The Godiva Festival in Coventry is not on this Saturday, so we’ll hopefully get a few more people from Coventry coming.

“The appeal was a really good kick in the pants for people - we now have 11 or 12 floats signed up. We had a response on the Friday the appeal came out and a couple more on the Monday after.”

Floats will assemble for judging by the town mayor Cllr Kate Dickson at 11am, with the parade starting from Kenilworth Castle’s Brays car park at 1pm, led by this year’s Carnival Queen Lucy Mills, and the first Carnival King in decades, Will Heaton.

The parade will then head to High Street, Bridge Street, Waverley Road, St John’s Street, Randall Road, The Square by the clock tower before finally dispersing in Abbey End at around 2.45pm.

Activities will also be held in Abbey Fields during and after the parade.

Along with the funfair which will open before the carnival starts on Thursday June 29, the entertainment begins at 2pm with the Chinewrde Morris Dancers performing.

The Heart of England Reform Church Band (HERC) will then perform at 2.30pm.

The cheerleaders of ice-hockey team Coventry Blaze, The Crew, will entertain the crowds at 3pm, and a display by Coventry-based martial arts team Tang Soo Do will be held at 3.30pm.

Young group Kryptic will be playing a mixture of rock and alternative covers along with an original song from 4pm, and at 4.30pm Tommy Connoly’s Irish Dancers will perform their routines for the crowd.

An Elvis tribute from Allan Baylis will start at 5pm before the Grand Draw at 5.30pm.

Headliners Rise will then take to the stage at 6pm for an hour-long set.