OXFORDSHIRE'S BEST DAY OF THE YEAR

Around 45,000 people celebrated festivities at the Cowley Road Carnival, on Sunday.

Oxfordshire's unique and joyful celebration of the diverse East Oxford community, was celebrated by around 45,000 people.

The festivities were led by hundreds of musicians, dancers and performers on stages and at venues all the way along the Cowley Road from the Plain to Magdalen Road, as well as other adjacent areas. With so much to see and do there was something for everyone in the most diverse area of Oxford.

The procession, with the theme ‘Creating our Future' in celebration of Oxford Brookes University's 150 year anniversary, was led by Brookie the Oxford Brookes mascot and Cowley Road Works' Rhythm Craft group which had made drums from recycled materials.

Brookie, the Oxford Brookes mascot (Kevin Taphouse)

Oxford Brookes University led the procession (Christopher Trafford)

Picture by Siew Yong Ong

There were 34 groups in the procession, many of them school children, who had been working on their costumes and giant-sized structures for months.

Community, dance and music groups also joined the procession, including Nepalese and West Papua groups and local favourites Sol Samba and Horns of Plenty.

Balloon Ascents started the proceedings at noon (Jacob Belton)

There was even a beach at Cowleyfornia by the Hobgoblin Car Park stage where music played all afternoon.

Cowleyfornia (Siew Yong Ong)

Chief organiser, Danielle Battigelli, the Executive Director of Cowley Road Works charity said: "This has been a wonderful year for Carnival. It all went really well. It was diverse in the true sense of the word with people from all ages and backgrounds joining in."

She added: "Carnival takes a year of planning with other events and activities over the 12 months leading up to the big day. If you came, had fun and enjoyed your day, please do make a donation. It is very important for people to help us meet our costs of £120,000. You can donate through the Big Give link or go to our website www.cowleyroadcarnival.co.uk."

Key sponsors, MINI Plant Oxford, brought their latest and most powerful model, the John Cooper Works, to show at the Carnival where they were joined by the electric Goblin car built by pupils from Culham Primary School. Maarten AbeleManager, Corporate and Plant Communicationssaid:" This has been a wonderful and successful day. We have had lots of visitors to our stand. It is great to be involved in such a wonderful community activity."

Alistair Fitt, Vice Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University said: "Oxford Brookes is extremely proud to have been so heavily involved in this year's event which was a real success.

 "The carnival is a great opportunity to celebrate what our vibrant community has to offer and, with 2015 being our 150^th year, it has been particularly special working closely with our local community.

We are already looking forward to what next year's carnival will have to offer."

Andrew Smith MP for Oxford East said: "It was a brilliant event, bigger than last year which is a huge tribute to the organisers and sponsors. There were some stunningly good costumes in the procession and thousands of people, which is good for the Cowley Road." 

Emma Wragg, Associate Lecturer in Urban Planning at Oxford Brookes University was a volunteer on the day. She said: "It was a very good natured event with a happy buzz and everyone was very positive. There was a very strong community feel, with a lot of residents bumping into people they knew but hadn't seen for a while."

 Luke Hearn, brand manager for Hobgoblin said: "It was great to be involved with the Cowley Road Carnival for the first time this year. I was delighted to see people of all ages and backgrounds having a brilliant time at The Hobgoblin Car Park. Hopefully, this is the first of many years that where we will work in partnership with this unique community event."

Oxford City Council Leader Bob Price said: "It was great to see so many communities represented and coming together for a day of celebration and fun. The Carnival showed again why Oxford is such a special place."

Cllr John Sanders, Chairman of Oxfordshire County Council, commented: "This is Oxford's main cultural event and one of the bits of glue that holds the community together."

Lilley Mitchell, Phil Mercer and Christine Wallace were presenting an outside broadcast of the event for BBC radio Oxford. Christine said: "Phil, Lilley and I thoroughly enjoyed our day and covering the Carnival. All of us really loved the atmosphere, which is amazing, and the diversity, the food, the dance and the music. I have never been before and I would certainly come again."

Phil added: "It is my first time too, and I have been bowled over by the number of people here. I have been privileged to come here and broadcast it."

Corina Kulike a PhD student at Oxford University, who was a volunteer said: "It has been great fun. Very positive reaction from people who were very nice and happy. A lot of people were coming back every year and had been looking forward to it. It was my first time, great fun and I would do it again next year." 

Food is a huge attraction and there were stalls and restaurants selling food from all round the world with lots to try from curried goat to Nepalese momo dumplings and traditional Indonesian dishes.

At the Manzil Gardens Stage there was plenty of room to spread out on the grass and enjoy an afternoon which kicked off at 12 noon with rising Oxford stars Balloon Ascents, followed by a programme of dance including the famous New Zealand ‘HaKa' ritual dance performed by Haka Day Out, and theatre from Les Enfants Terribles, followed by the ‘big finale' from headline band Ran Kan Kan. 

Carnival goers can win an acoustic guitar donated by PMT by sharing their carnival highlights on social media. Tweet @cowleycarnval #cowleyroadcarnival, like and share on facebook or post to Instagram by midnight 12 July for your chance to win.

Find out more at www.cowleyroadcarnival.co.uk

Ends

Notes to editors

For more information, photographs and to arrange interviews, please contact Sarah Airey at sarah.airey@thebuzzworks.co.uk telephone 07855 086447.

Notes to editors

For more information, photographs and to arrange interviews, please contact Sarah Airey at

Cowley Road Carnival receives core funding from Oxford City Council.

Organisations who have agreed to support Carnival 2015 include: MINI Plant Oxford, Oxford Brookes University, Hobgoblin from the Wychwood Brewery, Oxford University Community Fund, the Patsy Wood Trust and Oxfordshire County Council. 

Cowley Road Works is the organization behind the organization of Cowley Road Carnival. In 2015, Cowley Road Works won the Bybox Best Community Project at the OCVA Awards and has been shortlisted for the Oxford Business Awards in the category sponsored by the Oxford Times for best Charity and Community organization. 

Carnival 2015

• Approximately 45,000 people attended the free event on Sunday 5 July from 12 noon to 5pm

• Nearly 800 people took part in the Carnival procession, including 16 school groups with pre Carnival costume/puppet and dance workshops

• The John Cooper Works Mini was not driven in the procession in keeping with the environmentally friendly ethos behind the Carnival.

• 16 venues hosted music plus there were outside stages & sound systems

• Family Zone at the Asian Cultural Centre and Discovery zone at St Mary & St John Church

• Body & Soul zone

• Melody & Makers zone

• The Hobgoblin Car Park, Cowleyfornia and Vans skate ramp.