Newtown Carnival organisers say they are desperate for volunteers after they had to postpone the 136-year-old event.

Disappointed that only around five people showed up to volunteer at a public meeting held at The Monty Club on May 16, the tiny committee are urging more people to share some of their time to keep the tradition alive for future generations.

It costs at least £4,000 to host the event and more than 40 volunteers are needed from September to July to help with dozens of roles that are currently shared between around six members that have more than 100 years' experience with the carnival.

Linda Williams, who has volunteered for more than 50 years, said it is "heart breaking" that the carnival has been postponed due to a lack of volunteers.

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"We are desperate. They have to be committed otherwise we’ll be in the same position in January."

Secretary Sarah said there's a role for everyone from putting out tables and chairs, getting lorries ready, fundraising and much more.

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"More hands make light work," Sarah said. "We’re all in the same position and we don’t want it to disband. We’ve realised that Covid has pushed at rock bottom and the only way is up and that’s why we want to kickstart it again.

“We made the difficult the decision to postpone this year because we didn’t want to go out and it was half-hearted.

"People ask me why do I do it and my answer is always as soon as we come to the Crescent roundabout and over the bridge and see people five or six people deep either side of Broad Street, you can’t explain it until you’ve done it and that’s down to us.

“If we can get more people that are willing to commit, even a couple of hours on that weekend and it doesn’t have to be on the carnival weekend it can be throughout the year with the fundraising events.

"If we can get people to donate more it means, we have to raise less funds because we start with a blank canvas every year and it costs £4,000 to run a carnival."

One of the handful of volunteers to sign up was Jack Griffin Lewis. He said: "Being on the outside you don’t see the effort and passion and hard work that goes into different things unless you see what it takes. You just don’t know unless you take the leap and interact with the organisers and listen. It takes each person to make an effort themselves.

“If we lose the carnival then the younger generation won’t have those things, so we need to take responsibility ourselves. But you need to create those experiences and keep those traditions going.”

Newtown Carnival committee welcomes anyone to see what is involved in organising the event by attending their monthly meetings held at 6.30pm on Tuesdays at The Monty Club. For more information visit the Newtown Carnival page on Facebook or email newtowncarnival@hotmail.co.uk.

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