Site designed and maintained by Rob Allen - Stourport Carnival Society

The first official carnival took place in Stourport in 1925. Stourport girls must have been a shy lot back then as the first ‘Queen’ was in fact a gentleman by the name of Ben Evers. He had a ‘King’ to escort him, a Mr E. Millner. In fact it wasn’t until 1929 that we actually had a female Queen, Edna Davies.

The carnival has taken place almost every year from 1925 with few exceptions and has raised many thousands of pounds for local charities. It is thought to be one of the biggest events in the Midlands if not the country. Also it is unique in that it has a land parade and two river parades. The land parade is organised by the carnival and the river parades, one in the afternoon and an illuminated one in the evening, are organised by the Stourport Yacht Club in conjunction with the carnival.

Stourport carnival is run by volunteers from the local community and although personnel may change occasionally, you can be sure that whoever takes on the challenge gives their time and effort to continue to make the carnival such a success. Planning starts immediately after the last one has taken place and meetings are held on a monthly basis to discuss the various issues that putting on such a big event entails. Anyone willing to give a helping hand will be welcomed with open arms. They do not have to attend the meetings just let us know of their interest, turn up on carnival weekend and a job will be found for them. You can be sure of that!

The carnival has a few sponsors who offer their services or equipment free of charge to us each year. This makes the planning of the carnival that much easier. These sometimes vary from year to year but they always get a special mention in the carnival programme or on the website. Monetary sponsorship is always sought and again this helps with the costs and means that more money can be donated to local charities.

In 2006 two big changes were made. It was decided to hold the carnival over two days and also to drop the entry fee to the carnival field. This proved to be a huge success and will carry on for the foreseeable future.