14th NatWest Island Games Opening Parade an ‘Extraordinary Island’

The 14th NatWest opening parade took place on 25th June 2011. This replaced the Ryde Arts Festival parade for this one off carnival extravaganza. 9 months in the making this was a very special carnival parade comprising of 20 chapters showing the history of the Isle of Wight from the time of the dinosaurs to the current day. The Carnival Centre produced this display by working with local community groups, carnival associations and schools from around the island with the leadership of Chris Slann and Frankie Goldspink and Artistic Director Sharon George, with them worked 4 apprentices who coordinated the production of the costumes for the event.
To say that the opening ceremony was spectacular is an understatement. The parade was called an ‘Extraordinary Island’, which was a fantastic feast of colour on sound that was eco-friendly and inclusive. Of the first time there were no lorries with sound systems but Golf buggies, Eco-Sound systems and everything used in the ceremony could be recycled and used again for future carnivals on the island and further afield.

The parade started from two places, the first part in Simeon Street Recreation Ground, where all the schools and groups met to get ready on a dry, sunny but windy day, with live music, and a big screen to watch the opening ceremony on. The second was at Dover Park School where 4,000 athletes were also entertained to Steel Pan music and English Morris Dancing by the Bloodstone Morris, the Oyster Girls, and the Men of Wight.

The parade set off from Simeon Street along the Esplanade to cheers and rapturous applause, and then the Athletes joined the tail end to walk though the town. They were warmly greeted by the locals who came out in their thousands to enjoy what had to be the best carnival ever seen on the Isle of Wight. The athletes paraded past the President of the Island Games and Lord Coe who heads the Olympic 2012 committee.

You can now see the Photographs of the parade on the Ryde Carnival website 2011 Gallery page

This entry was posted on 17/07/2011 at 10:02 pm and is filed under Raising Awareness, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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