Nine-year-old Kai Jones is Bishops Castle Carnival’s first ever Carnival Prince.

It replaces the old Junior Carnival King role which started in 1968 with local man Paul Williams taking the title and the last Junior Carnival King was Scott Breeze Humphreys in 2005.

This year the carnival committee decided on having a Carnival Prince for the first time with Kai welcomed Kai’s mum Tracey Lane was Carnival Queen in 1996.

Kai has lived in Bishops Castle all his life and attends the town’s primary school.

Kai’s interests are general sports especially running and playing football.

He enjoys riding his bike and Kai also plays the violin and has recently passed exams in it.

Kai’s attendants will be Luca Weaver and Kelsey Robertson.

The Carnival Princess for 2018 is Esther Pyman.

Esther is nine years old and moved to Bishops Castle in 2015 with her family.

Esther attends the primary school and she enjoys baking, art, swimming and sports.

Esther is a member of the primary school choir, loves reading Harry Potter and she has won the ‘BC Junior Baker’ award twice.

Esther’s attendants on carnival day will be her friends Miranda Isherwood, Vinnie James-Ash and Priyanka Dhinakaran.

They will all join Carnival Queen Chiara Ireland-Morris, an 18-year-old fine art and drama student, and her attendants who are her cousin Megan Morris along with Hannah and Phoebe Jones, for their big day this Sunday, July 1.

The carnival “royalty” will head the procession with floats which will congregate on Church Bank from noon ready for judging at 12.30pm.

The procession through the town starts at 1pm and ends on the playing fields at 2pm when the Carnival Queen, Prince and Princess are crowned.

The theme this year is “Rule Britannia” and the committee is asking entrants to consider what makes it good to live in Great Britain and what is the country famous for.

A wide range of floats are expected depicting the country’s history, British comedies, British Cars, our NHS and so on.

In addition, there will be a number of categories for walking classes with the same theme.

In the procession there will be also be a range of vintage vehicles and a marching band.

Leading up to all that have been a number of events during this week including the new Scarecrow Competition with the theme of “Local Legends”, a Family Town Trail and a War painting competition.

There has also been the traditional shop window competition with the theme this year being Children’s Tea Party.

Judging has been going on and the winner will be notified today Friday, June 29.

There will also be a cricket competition hosted by Bishops Castle Cricket Club which will take place the day after the carnival on Monday, July 2, with a barbecue also at the club.

For further information contact Simon Palmer on 07779844613 or via email to simon.palmer@ fsmail.net

The carnival is run by a small committee of volunteers so any help that can be offered would be gratefully received either leading up to the carnival or on the clear up after the carnival.

Contact carnival secretary Amanda Houghton on 01588 630760 or 07906431643 for any further details of carnival events or offers of help.