Exmouth Carnival organiser Gavin 'gutted' after carnival cancellation

The organiser of Exmouth Carnival says he is 'gutted' after yesterday announcement that this year's carnival will not be taking place.

Yesterday (April 28) Exmouth Carnival Club announced that this year's carnival will not be taking place due to 'the ongoing Covid-19 situation'.

Due to a lack of support in 2018 that year's carnival had to be cancelled. Last year local man Gavin Roberts stepped in to save the event.

Despite heavy rain last year's carnival was attended by thousands of people from across East Devon.

Nub News spoke to Gavin today to find out how he is feeling about the event's cancellation and what his plans are for next year.

"I'm gutted really but I also understand why this was necessary," said Gavin.

"Some of the bigger floats can take up to a year to build. I remember last year one of our bigger floats was not ready until the day of the carnival.

"People simply can't get together to build the floats. The schools are having a hard time as it is without trying to come up with a carnival entry.

"Sadly it's one of those things, nobody could have foreseen the coronavirus outbreak. All we can do is cancel the event to keep people safe."

Gavin added: "We are looking at putting on a community event once the lock down has been lifted."

Exmouth Nub News' Facebook Live video of last year's event has been watched by almost 14,000 people, and people from as far away as Australia and the USA tuned in live to watch.

While this year's event was not due to take place until October, by which time we should be out of lock down, organising a carnival is a lot more involved than many people realise, as Gavin explained: "There's a lot more going on behind the scenes than people realise. Before getting involved in the organisation of the carnival I would, like everybody else, watch it, go home and not think too much more about it but now I know what it takes.

"Most floats are started pretty much the day after the previous carnival. Road closures can be quite tricky to organise. Last year traffic management company Skanska donated their services to us but going forward we will have to pay for that service, which means shopping around.

"With the cancellation of this year's event we can only hope for a bigger and better carnival than we would have had this year.

"We've got just under a year and a half to organise the next one. People understand the situation and I hope they bear with us. If I have anything to do with it next year's carnival will be bigger and better than ever. The only thing which could put a spanner in the works is really bad weather."