Wednesday 21st February 2024 marked our Annual General Meeting, we also reviewed Taunton Carnival Committee’s events for the last year.

Marilyn House said “There was no marathon in 2023 for a variety of reasons, not least that we would have been risking a considerable amount of our funds with no certainty of any profit. Instead, we hosted a number of bingo evenings throughout the year which proved popular and hopefully will continue to do so in 2024.

Several other fundraising opportunities occurred during the year which included working with the Taunton Flower Show organisers to help with their town highway signage and marshalling at the Gay Pride event. As usual we marshalled at the St George’s Day Parade and Rememberace Day Parade. We also re-introduced the Carnival Programme which we hope to continue with this year.

Our 10k race continued with runners returning in higher numbers. Setting up the race presented a few new challenges.

The highlight of the year is always Carnival Day. The procession was a vast improvement on the previous year. The clubs were back to the best and the number of entries increased significantly and, although the collection was disappointingly low, the comments on social media were all very positive.”

Thanks were given to Marilyn, as she stepped down as the Chairman and as a Director. Marilyn had been Chairman since 2009 and her commitment and dedication in that time were faultless, and Taunton Carnival owes her a huge amount of gratitude.

Callum Perrin was elected as the Chairman for 2024 and looks forward to the challenge that the role brings.

All officers were subject to annual election, and continuing in their roles were John Lewis (Secretary and Company Secretary), Roz Swinburne (Hon. Treasurer) and Roger House (Director). We also welcomed David Glanville to be a director.