At our AGM held on 19th February 2025, the committee Chairman gave the following review for 2024.

2024 saw new challenges for the committee and lots of positives too. 

We carried our bingo events through from 2023 and have been able to fundraise well with those extra events, with room for improvement, hopefully 2025 will be a stronger year again for our fundraising. 

We were able to support the Flower Show organisers again with the town highway signage which is a great way to include ourselves in the community and raise crucial extra funds. Of course, we were also able to assist with marshalling on St George’s Day and Remembrance Parade processions and continue to be asked to support local events such as the D-Day anniversary day at Maidenbrook Country Park. 

We hosted the 10k Road Race once again in September and whilst we faced challenges with manpower, everyone rose to the occasion and produced an event which was safe, profitable and well received by all the runners involved.

Then came carnival, with so many changes for 2024. The biggest change and unusual event for last years carnival was that we unfortunately ran 30 minutes late due to 3 first aid incidents. Another change was sponsorship, and we used our connections with the Taunton Chamber of Commerce to build relationships with local businesses, lots of whom wanted to be involved in carnival – I’m sure we can build further on this in the coming years. Further to this, we took a huge jump by offering appearance money to clubs instead of prize money. This gives far more support to our carnival clubs and assurance that when they come to Taunton carnival, we can contribute to some of their costs, regardless of the results in their class. We added temporary traffic light signals to the Wood Street area to facilitate a safer, more efficient way of supporting motorists looking to leave the town after the procession.

The procession itself was an incredible improvement on previous years, in 2024 we were able to host a really good display of entries, welcoming Taunton Beats, Nigerians in Taunton and Taunton Twinning Committee which was a chance for Taunton to show off its many cultures – these entries went down really well with the public. We also welcomed floats than previously, with some making the trip from Devon to show their entries at our carnival. 

The response on social media, for a second year running, was really positive!

Onto the federation dance, and this year was Taunton’s turn to host. We had a really nice atmosphere at Taunton Rugby Club, celebrated lots of winners and had an opportunity to thank everyone that took part.

Lastly I’d like to thank the Taunton Carnival Committee members for their work last year, it takes a lot of time, effort and commitment to put on these events.