Copmanthorpe Carnival 2010

York's Finest Carnival

Carnival 2010 was a great success; however the committee was concerned by the incident with a fairground ride which required a teenage girl being taken to hospital.

We are delighted to re-assure everyone that after a full examination she was released from hospital with no major injuries although she suffered cuts and bruises.

The Carnival committee wish her a speedy recovery and we look forward to welcoming her and her family as our guests to next years Carnival.

Carnival Sponsors

This year Copmanthorpe Carnival had a fantastic business as sponsor for our event. The York-based, not-for-profit organisation, Benenden Healthcare Society joined the Carnival to support this great cause.

This collaboration will create a great platform for the event to grow bigger and better - helping it to achieve its goals and aspirations.

Benenden Healthcare Society were the sole sponsors of the 2010 Copmanthorpe Carnival with a strong presence at the event to promotes good health and wellbeing amongst the thousands of visitors to this year’s event.

Neil Barnes of Benenden Healthcare said: "I think it was a fantastic event, really worthwhile so congratulations to all the team for putting on an event that made a real contribution to the community. At this point in time, I think you can put me on record as saying that I’d love Benenden Healthcare to be main sponsors for 2011’s event if the committee would want us back!"

“Cop Fest”

In 2007 we started the "Cop Fest" music festival at Copmanthorpe Carnival and on the 3rd July 2010 it showed it's maturity. With a professional festival stage, a perfect sound system and an awesome line up, "Cop Fest" is now the best music event in York.

Everyone who performed on the festival stage were fantastic, starting with the pre-school children, who weren't put off by our new local MP and Copmanthorpe Carnival regular, Julian Sturdy, who opened the event.

And a big thanks to all the bands and dancers who performed. But the biggest thank you goes to iCALLSHOTGUN. who returned to headline in 2010.

Though all of the 6 hours of music we were in the safe hands of Minster FM who did a brilliant job.

Carnivals Attractions

On Friday afternoon we marked out the spaces for over 30 stalls ready for a great mix of charities, individuals, local organisations and businesses. The Stalls Village had a real buzz about it especially around the food court. Last year there was a problem with queues for some of the refreshment stalls and the toilets, the committee recognised this and added a beer tent, hired in extra loos and improved the efficiency of the burger bar which made things a lot better.

Global York brought a team of volunteers to man their kids zone and football cage and also to help us out with the carnival games and ran hot dog stall.

Thanks to the tireless work of one Copmanthorpe couple, Peter and Sandra Wilson, the entire field was kept clear of litter due to their 6 hour shifts of rubbish collection. Amazing!

A Week of Events

The Junior Discos were bursting at the seams with over 60 at both the younger and older events. Many parents enjoyed and evening in the beer garden while their children danced their socks off in a very hot sports club!

Carnival Week was a great success. The Arts Festival kicked things off on Tuesday evening and was warmly received by all, with the quality of the exhibits improving once again. Most of the paintings were sold, with many being reserved on the opening night.

The Carnival Wine Tasting is now a permeant fixture in our programme and this year we were taken through a fine collection of South African Wines by Karen Hardwick of The Wine Academy. As ever, it was a hugely enjoyable and informative evening.

The 16 Over challenge match between Copmanthorpe Cricket Clubs 2nd XI and the Football Club was hugely enjoyable. The cricketers batted first, but struggled to get their bats to the rather wayward bowling and only managed to set a small total of 68. The footballers put in a "ringer" to open and it didn't take long for Ed Noble to knock 25 before he retired to let the others have a bat. At this point the cricketers missed a trick. They bowled straight and true, and at some pace, which just played into the hands of the footballers who only knew one way to bat, the slog. The ball often missed the bat, but when it did make contact it invariably made it over the boundary rope. The footballers reached their target with overs to spare and celebrated like they'ed won the league. The cricketers put the sightscreens away and didn't take kindly to the suggestion that they should have used a spin bowler. A largish crowd had enjoyed the match played in good spirits. I hope the cricketers aren't too bothered by their defeat, where is the fun in the cricketers winning a charity challenge match!

The Carnival quiz followed the cricket with the numbers swelled by many who decided to stick around. The highlight was the music round which was put together by Dave Kershaw, who cleverly weaved our Carnival Theme of "Nations of the World Cup" in to his choice of music. There was a tie for second place. The tiebreak question was "According to the Guinness Book of Records, what is the most number of children one woman has given birth to in a lifetime?" One team guessed 31 with the other going for 35. Both perfectly reasonable answers, but neither were close!

Many Thanks

Copmanthorpe Carnival has two aims. The first is to be a great community event for the people of Copmanthorpe and the wider area. The second is to raise money for Copmanthorpe Recreation Centre. Anyone who attended this years carnival will already know that we achieved the first aim and we are pleased that we have also been successful in our second aim. Our initial calculations tell us that we may raise more than last years £10,400!

Thank you to all who came to Carnival 2010, without you it would have been an empty field and an £7,000 loss!

Thanks to all the stall holders, the bands, the scout leaders, the city council. And thanks to all of those who volunteered on the day to sell tickets on the gate, to cook burgers, to sell pop, Pimms and raffle tickets, to set up the carnival games and man them, to pick up litter and everything else which I can't remember. Thank you to every one of you.

And a final thank you to our Sponsors, Benenden Healthcare Society, it was great to have you on board and yes, we are very interested in having you back next year.

Finally

Copmanthorpe Carnival 2010 was amazing, but you may be surprised to know that it was organised by a team of 10 village residents with the help of a few "outsiders" from global. These volunteers produced the programme, the web site, the music festival, the wine tasting and the discos. Booked the stalls, the stage, the bands, the slides and rides. Applied for licenses and found sponsors. Sold programmes and tickets. Cajoled friends into helping.

Many of us were wondering what we'd got ourselves into in the final weeks and days and started to worry about what may happen, would it all go wrong? But, in the end, we are all quite rightly proud of what we achieved at Copmanthorpe Carnival 2010.