Sunday 18 August 2013

Rain on my parade


For a city which is rammed with tourists every year, Bath is supremely crap at organising it's Carnival.

The first I heard about it was when a friend in the pub mentioned it yesterday, and said that it had no publicity at all that we were aware of, except for a 4 inch by 5 inch little flyer pinned to the wall and hiding amongst dozens of bigger, brighter posters advertising music events, etc. The next thing I heard about it was the car-horns when this 'events organiser's' lorry blocked the road without warning, causing a major, unexpected hold-up. Luckily, no ambulances were called to the area.

We took the flyer down and looked for any information as to when the parade would take place, but couldn't find any, but it was full of entreaties for everyone to 'get involved'.

There are little villages in Somerset which hold carnivals every year which could be compared to Rio's, and people come from miles around to see them.

The Bath University students used to hold a little parade every year, and it amounted to a bunch of pissed-up blokes with sheets wrapped around them, shouting at passers-by from the backs of flatbed lorries, but - thankfully - they seemed to have stopped doing even that.


Bath has a Samba Band which appears about once a year on the streets, but I don't know where they practice, as I have never heard them. It must be miles out of town.



I made the best of the situation by leaning out of the window and observing the medical evidence at the head of the parade (with a x30 zoom) - that girl in the silver outfit below seems to have undergone an appendectomy in the last year or two. Spot it?


12 comments:

  1. Why does every UK carnival have to have a Samba school, a pan band, several red Indians, a mermaid or two, and face-painted students who shake collection boxes at you? Not frightfully British!

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  2. A day late and a dollar short, here's what you needed to know. And knowing it illuminate's Cro's remark. Without further ado, from the Bath tourism site:

    A samba-style carnival will take place in Bath this summer.

    The free Bath Carnival, organised by Bath School of Samba, takes place on Saturday August 17 and will feature carnival dancers, samba bands and local musicians performing throughout the day and into the evening.

    From 11am there will be music and entertainment at Royal Victoria Park. Food stalls and a bar will run throughout the day and local bands will perform on the bandstand. As the Carnival atmosphere begins to build people will have the chance to get dressed up, stick a feather in their hair and have their face painted before joining the parade from the Holburne Museum at 6pm. The procession will meander down Great Pulteney Street, along Westgate Street, up through Queen Square, onto Royal Avenue and finish back at the park, where the party continues with live music throughout the night!

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    1. And when did you find this - 3000 miles away and a day late - after you had actively sought it out? A day late? It wasn't in our local newspaper.

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  3. It is a wonder you didn't fall out of the window Tom - you certainly had an eyefull and I don't believe for a moment you were looking at that appendix scar - I wasn't born yesterday.

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    1. I now wish I had video'd it - then I might not have noticed the scar. The was shaking it about like a good 'un, which doesn't come over well in a still photo.

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    2. I seem to have missed a word out above, 'arse' was the word.

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  4. Alaf!(Köln) Helau! (Mainz) Pottheißa! (Hildesheim) - the carnival battle cries of the nuts in Germany. Husband, from Mainz, always fled when the 'carnival parades' started.

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    1. A man after my own heart. The Koln one is very strange.

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  5. I have one of those scars! Had the operation aged 6 in 1970 in London. It was done by one of the keyhole pioneers so it was very tiny for the time.

    I'm afraid I have carnival allergy which causes a fixed and false smile and a loss of the will to live.

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    1. Never mind the scar, have you got one of those backsides?

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