Leighton carnival's colurful theme was most definitely a bright idea!

The town’s carnival was blessed with a bigger procession than previous years as community groups interpreted the Colours of the Rainbow them in their own way.

The winners from Saturday were:

Children’s Organisations & Schools – 1st Beaudesert Lower School; 2nd Pulford VA Lower School; 3rd Leedon Lower School

Open – 1st Brooklands Residents Association; 2nd= Friends Within (Mencap) and Men in Black.

Walking – 1st Shooting Stars; 2nd= Hockliffe Street Baptist Church and Doreen’s School of Dancing; 3rd Dogs for Good.

The two new shields Doreen Rolls Memorial Shield (awarded to the entrants with most points for enthusiasm) and the Peter Lymbery Memorial Shield (entrant with most points overall) were both won by Beaudesert Lower School.

They were presented by the Doreen’s daughter and Peter’s daughter.

Carnival committee chairman Mark Freeman said: “Carnival was a huge success with a bigger procession than in previous years, more stalls and brilliant weather.

“The crowd seemed larger than usual, but it is difficult to say how many people come into the park.

“The standard of the procession entries was very high, and the judges – Cllr Syed Rahman, Dave Edwards, Malcolm Chaney and Victoria Harvey – had a difficult job in scoring them. We are grateful to all the groups that entered for making it a wonderful parade, and all the companies that provided the vehicles.”

Mark added: “All the local groups that performed in the arena were well received, and it great to have them show the rest of the town what they work so hard at all the year round, and the Shires RBL Youth Band were again welcomed to lead the procession and perform in the arena.

“My personal thanks to my team for their efforts all through the year, and to the volunteers who came and helped us on the day.”

With the event done and dusted for 2017, organisers are already planning for Carnival 2018, which will be on July 14.

Mark said: “We are inviting suggestions for the theme, which need to with us by July 31 – send to [email protected]. We will run a ballot on the carnival website www.leightoncarnival.co.uk throughout August to choose the most popular theme suggestion.

“If anyone had photos or video of carnival that they would allow us to put on our website, please contact us. We are particularly keen to build up our library of pictures from the 1950-2000 especially of the Carnival Courts. Many of the pictures of the Queens and Princesses we have from that era are poor quality and do not do those people justice.”

See the July 11 issue of the LBO for 3 pages of pictures from the event.