Diamond Jubilee
Thousands gather for Pershore Carnival

By Nigel Slater 05/06 Updated: 08/06 11:08

Buy photos » This year's Carnival saw plenty of live music and the bagpipes were played to all their glory during the procession. Photos by Marcus Mingins 2312025MMR11

MORE than 10,000 people took to the streets of Pershore to celebrate The Queen's Diamond Jubilee during the town's annual Carnival Day.

The town was a sea of red, white and blue on Monday (June 4) at midday as people lined up the High Street to see the grand procession which saw more than 20 floats enter the town to launch the Carnival.

Later in the afternoon saw plenty of fun in Abbey Park with live music being provided by the St Andrew's Pipe Band, Move On Up Community Choir, the Drakes Broughton Folk Band and Evesham Hospital Radio.

Vintage cars and motorbikes were also on display as well as ferret racing, a dog show, a bouncy castle and a hog roast.

Night time saw Pershore's very own Diamond Jubilee Concert which featured young rockers SJS followed by performances from Garry Allcock All Stars Big Band and the town's Reverend Elvis - Andy Kerso.

The day ended in true style with a spectacular firework display brought the carnival day to a stunning close for another year which brought many colours to the town's skyline above Pershore Abbey.

Charles Tucker, Mayor of Pershore, said it was the best carnival the town has seen in the past ten years.

"It was a superb day," he said. "It was brilliant to see so so many people take part and celebrate it. A lot of hard work and effort has been put into it and the stupendous firework display in the evening was absolutely fantastic.

"I said on Saturday that not many of us will see another Diamond Jubilee again in our lives and Pershore certainly had a celebration to be proud of to commemorate it."

Robert Speight, a member of the Carnival Committee added: "It went fantastically well and everyone enjoyed themselves. Lots of people were dancing and getting in the Jubilee spirit. I'll remember it for a long time.

"We the committee were delighted with how it all went after months of hard work and were relieved the rain stayed away."

To see more pictures of the big day see this week's Observer.