Carnival is something that I have grown up with since I was a kid. I remember being excited to go each year and watch the colourful carts go by, it hold a lot of nostalgia.
In recent years the cost of living crisis has hit everybody and has especially been hard on businesses/events. In the build-up to bonfire night I was noticing an increasing number of events getting cancelled, with the reason being cited as 'cost of living'. As the carnival in Somerset is a lot different to a traditional carnival, I realised how much it must be affected by these rising costs, having to have roads closed and and build entire motorised carts.
I decided then that I would curate a story around the defiance of carnival through this tough period with many events being cancelled. Why is it that carnival is surviving? What makes this event so important to the locals?
I aim to answer these questions and more in my final piece, interviewing members of a carnival club, organisers, the police force, and more.
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