IN NUMBERS

2018 is the 413th anniversary of The Gunpowder Plot. Distance wise the procession route is just over 1.7 miles long, and the carnival will take more than 2 hours to pass any one viewing point.

Over 2,000 people are involved with the 98 entries in this year’s event.

Over 7 megawatts of electricity will power the 44 carnival carts taking part in this year’s carnival procession.

Over 1,000,000 individual lights (lamps and LEDs) will illuminate the skyline as the carts travel around the streets of Bridgwater

1,600 traffic cones, 200 road traffic signs, 170 barriers, and 34 traffic marshals will be facilitating the 31 closed roads.

This year Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival has 70 friends of carnival (formerly patrons).

All 2,270 grandstand seats were sold six weeks prior to the big day. In addition, 170 corporate hospitality packages were available for the big night, all of which included a grandstand ticket.

44 trade stands will line the procession route on carnival night.

76 coaches / minibuses pre-booked to attend this year’s Bridgwater Carnival.

Over 180 people are expected to take part in this year’s squibbing display. The squibs are 300mm long.

37 cups and trophies are awarded on carnival night by our 79 judges. Before the results are announced on the evening, 4,684 separate judging scores will need to be entered onto laptops to ascertain which entries came where.

30 companies and organisations are official sponsors of Bridgwater Carnival this year.

7,629 people like the official Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival Facebook page.

4,713 people follow Bridgwater Carnival’s official Twitter account.

In the last 12 months the carnival’s official website has received 195,445 hits, including 9,701 from computer users living in the US, 666 from France, 461 from Azerbaijan, 406 from Spain, 363 from Germany, 291 from Australia, and 231 from Canada.

Various research projects and studies have concluded that Bridgwater Carnival is worth an estimated £4 million annually to the local economy - £2 million during the weekend of the carnival and a further £2 million from carnival related activities throughout the year.

The free Bridgwater Carnival app, which is available from Google Play and the App Store, has been downloaded by 1,449 people.

The Shepherd Family CC are expected to be the entrant who will be travelling the furthest distance to take part competitively in the carnival. The group are from Portsmouth in Hampshire and will be travelling 106 miles to Bridgwater for the big day.

Over the last 20 years Bridgwater Carnival related activities have raised over £504,357 for the official Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival charity and other local supported charities.

2018 sees a number of carnival clubs celebrating special anniversaries for the number of years they have taken part in Bridgwater Carnival, including 80 years for Centurion CC.

Tractor driver, Dave Speed, from Bridgwater’s Cavaliers CC, will be driving his 197th consecutive carnival at Bridgwater Carnival 2018.

There will be 30 smoke machines on Globe CC’s 2018 entry Captain Morgan’s Revenge.

Club members from Coleford based Huckyduck CC have carved and painted over 10,000 bricks for their

2018 entry One for the Road.

Luckington CC have entered Bridgwater Carnival in the feature, tableaux and comic classes during their 40 years of taking part.

Club members from Bridgwater’s Marina Sydenham Juvenile CC have made over 450 tiles and paving slabs for their 2018 entry Graffiti Villains.

South Brent CC will be appearing in their 21st carnival of the year when they take part in this year’s Bridgwater Carnival.

The combined ages of all 40 members from Bridgwater-based Wills CC is close to 1,000 years.

The first physical person to portray Guy Fawkes at Bridgwater Carnival was Joseph Spriggs who led the parade in 1896 on the Guy Fawkes cart, a tradition which survives to this day.

Arts Council England has once again recognised the valuable role which Bridgwater Carnival performs in the local community by awarding a grant of £32,125 for this year.