And the date is 5th July 2009

The new East Oxford Action Charity is planning the Carnival event for 5 July 2009. The charity needs Trustees and Advisors to help shape, plan and put on this year's event, and to plan for the future of Carnival.

More information will be available on the Carnival website soon.

If you are interested to take part or support the Carnival in any way, please email carnival@eastoxford.com

Carnival Infrastructure workshop

14th March 2009
at Restore, Manzil Way, Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1YH

Carnivals across the South East are invited to a participatory workshop to share best practice in Carnival infrastructure, which will result in a handbook available for download by Carnival Network South East members. The workshop will cover volunteers, stewarding and security, insurance and licences, managing suppliers and contractors plus other topics by request. Contact zoe@eastoxford.com for more details.

The workshop will start at 10.45 am and finish at 4pm. The workshop is free, although there is a £5 charge for lunch (collectable on the day).

Report on the Future of Cowley Road Carnival

There are exciting developments afoot for Cowley Road Carnival following a wide ranging report on the best options for the ongoing future of Oxford's largest community-run event. Since its beginnings in 2001 the Cowley Road Carnival has been a significant element of the wider regeneration programme for the area run by East Oxford Action. However, with the regeneration programme now coming to a successful end and East Oxford Action spinning off its more commercial activities as separate companies, the East Oxford Action board commissioned this thorough report from independent consultant, Danielle Battigelli, to look into the best ways to take this popular community event forward into the future.

The report is downloadable here

The report found widespread support for the event and came up with a number of options for the future. The preferred approach is for Carnival to be run by an independent charity, which is to become a dedicated events organisation. Cowley Road Carnival has been funded from hard-won grants and sponsorship from supportive organisations such as BMW, Oxford City Council and the Arts Council, and one advantages of the charity is that it will be able to access more types of funding than have been available up to now. The East Oxford Action board had secured funding from the Arts Council for the development of the charity which, over the next four months,will be used to put in place, the administrative structures that are needed to attract the necessary funding and to run successful events in the coming years.

There are already plans for an event in July 2009, but the exact form this will take will be dependent on the funding available, timing and public support. An interim board is currently working on this, but there will be a need for more people to get involved.

East Oxford Action's Company Secretary Zoe Brooks commented “The most important job will be to recruit a management board and more volunteers from the different local communities, who have the skills and commitment to manage and deliver the Carnival for many years to come.

People interested in following the latest developments or reading the report can visit the Carnival blog on http://cowleyroadcarnival.blogspot.com/

Paper on Carnivals and Regeneration

A paper written by Zoe Brooks for East Oxford Action on Carnivals and Regeneration is now available for download - Carnivals and Regeneration - EOA Information Sheet 8

The paper was written to support last year's DTA conference at Oxford Town Hall, which had Carnival as its theme. The paper uses the lessons learnt from the Cowley Road Carnival and covers, positive branding, economic development, CSR, community cohesion, community involvement and educational benefits.

Carnival Video

As part of a Heritage Lottery-funded project East Oxford Action commissioned a video of the Cowley Road Carnival 2008. The whole project explores the different cultural traditions of carnival in the communities of Oxford, especially the Polish, Czech, Brazilian, Albanian and Trinidadian traditions.

The video interviews local people about the Carnival and what it means to them. You can see it and a slideshow of the project exhibition on http://www.vivacarnival.net/

2008 Carnival - A Great Success

Despite the rain over 20,000 people turned up for the 2008 Carnival. Here are some of photos of the day.

Czech Carnival Musicians - Masopusters. A great hit with the ladies!



The giant puppet skeleton created by local artists in a workshop by Mandinga.


Spirit of Cowley Road Giant Puppet


Another skeleton.


Oxfordshire Bangaldeshi Association's tiger.

GET INVOLVED!!!

With only 6 weeks to go until this year’s Carnival, there are lots of ways to get involved, both on the day and before hand. Whether it’s making giant puppets in one of the community workshops, being part of the colourful procession or helping as a volunteer on the day, there’s something for everyone to do.

Workshops are taking place at

- Professional artists' workshops with Mandinga Arts on 27, 28 May and 26-27 June at Fusion Community Arts Centre, Princess Street.

- Bengali Tiger: with Emily Cooling and Emel Yilmaz at Rose Hill Children's Centre on Saturdays 7th, 21st, 28th June.

- Venetian Puppet with Groovy Su and Bill Frizell at Donnington Doorstep Family Centre on Saturdays 21st and 28th June.

For more information on workshops contact Camille Baziadoly at Fusion: Camille@fusion-arts.org

The procession is back to kick off the carnival leaving from the Plain at 12.00 and it’s not too late to be involved! This year’s theme is masks, so whether you’ve got a Venetian carnival mask, an African tribal mask or a Dracula mask, bring it along and join the procession. If you or your group want to be involved you need to be free from 11.00 – 1.30 on the day. Please email the procession coordinator: procession@inevents.org for more information.

As ever volunteers are needed for stewarding, stage managing and generally to help make things run smoothly on the day. There will be plenty to see and do whilst on duty, so you won’t miss out on the fun! Not only will volunteers be part of this exciting community event, there will also be goodies on offer including a free meal from a local restaurant and a VIP pass to the official after carnival party at the Regal. Email the Carnival Coordinator carnival@eastoxford.com to sign up for volunteering.

Come on, you know you want to be part of it!

CARNIVAL IS COMING!!!

GET YOUR MASKS OUT! SUNDAY 6 JULY

Calling all the girls and boys, Carnival is just a matter of weeks away now...

We have had over 100 requests to play on one of the 5 stages and the office is full of demo CDs so NO MORE PLEASE!!

The stalls are almost full, there is just one week left to get your interest in on this, email Rob stalls@inevents.org to register your interest.

There will be much more of the loved activity at this year's event, with Street Theatre, market stalls from around the world, children's activities, dance and music performances how can people not love this day!??

If you would like to get involved then we are still looking for more volunteers to help raise much needed funds for Carnival. email carnival@eastoxford.com if you can help.

Keep your eyes open for information on workshops and much more carnival fun!