13/02/2010 by admin.

There are serious concerns about Government’s decision to repeal exemptions set out in the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988, which mean charitable groups and other not-for-profit organisations are not required to obtain a music licence from PPL (Phonographic Performance LTD) and  the Performing Rights Society (PRS) if they wish to play recorded music

The Government’s own figures suggest this change will cost voluntary and community organisations up to £20 million more a year. This is an incredible amount of money, which can only be met by funds earmarked for charitable purposes.

This is also likely to affect a broad array of community organisations: village halls, churches, care homes, charity shops, youth clubs, carnival groups and carnival associations, scouts and guides associations and bingo halls.

This is another stelth tax that has crept up, it is really important that as many people sign the petition asking the government to recondsider this as the implications are very serious for community groups right across the board.

The bigest effect these new regulations will have is on the running of the Ryde Arts Festival and its’ parade, Ryde Regatta, and the 3 Ryde Carnivals as well as the many church fetes that are held in the Ryde area. The costs of the licences could put a halt to these wonderful free public entertainments, which could have a knock on effect on the economics of our town.

You can sign the petition online here:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/dontstopthemusic/

You can also join the FaceBook group here
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=274770375866

You can read more information about the new regulations here:
http://www.ppluk.com/en/News–Events/Archived-News/PPL-and-PRS-for-Music-announce-joint-licensing-scheme/

http://www.ppluk.com/en/Music-Users/Information-for-Charities/

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14/08/2009 by admin.

This August Bank Holiday (30/31 August) thousands of people will take to the streets of London for the multi-cultural Notting Hill Carnival, the second largest street festival in the world after Rio.  But meanwhile, the UK’s oldest carnival parade whose rich history can be traced back to Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee of 1887, will take place in the delightful seaside town of Ryde on the Isle of Wight (19/22 August and 5 September).

Throughout the summer, Islanders stage over a dozen carnivals culminating in the last carnival of the season at the end of the summer holidays - the ultimate carnival at Ryde.   A fantastic spectacle featuring over 2000 performers and dozens of colourful floats with musical influences from Rio Samba, Trinidad Street Pan as well as local Isle of Wight musicians, the event is held over 3 days giving visitors plenty of opportunity to party as they watch the parades make their dazzling journey through the town and along the seafront.

Ryde Carnival is reputed to be the oldest established carnival is England. The first true event was held in 1888 but the real origins extend a year further back to Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee of 1887.    These days, while still maintaining a distinct Island character, the flamboyantly dressed dancers, creative carnival floats and giant costumed characters are more akin to Rio than Ryde.

There are three parades to choose from but the Illuminated Carnival is the most spectacular:

Children’s Carnival - Wednesday 19 August
Main Carnival – Saturday 22 August
Illuminated Carnival - Saturday 5 September

For start times and procession routes please visit www.rydecarnival.co.uk

In recent years, the Isle of Wight has developed strong ties with Notting Hill Carnival with many of the organisers visiting after the Bank Holiday either to spectate or take part in Ryde Carnival bringing their vibrancy and colour to an Island reminiscent of Notting Hill’s Caribbean carnival roots.

The Isle of Wight is extremely proud of its carnival heritage and was the first county in the UK to set up a Carnival Learning Centre dedicated to enhance Ryde and other Isle of Wight carnivals by bringing a distinctive new flavour to the existing carnival traditions.

Creative courses at the Isle of Wight Council-managed centre include learning how to make the flamboyant costumes, masks and headgear for the huge floats and parades.  Visitors can get involved in a wide range of one-off taster sessions and weekend workshops. Check the website www.thecarnivallearningcentre.org for latest information and prices.

It’s simple to get to the Isle of Wight, there are up to 350 ferry crossings a day from Portsmouth, Southampton, Lymington and Southsea.  Once you’re there it’s easy to get around, ferry routes connect directly with the Island’s road, rail and coach links.

For details on how to get to the Isle of Wight, where to stay and what to see and do,  visit www.islandbreaks.co.uk or telephone 01983 813813.

This article has been kindly supplied by Isle of Wight Council’s Tourism Division

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18/07/2009 by admin.

The Ryde Social Heritage Group has kindly agreed to allow Ryde Carnival Association to use their newsletter Volume 3, Number 4, October 2008 headed Ryde Carnival - The Origins.

The Ryde Social Heritage group have a much larger archive of the Ryde Carnival which is available to view during their Heritage Open Days. To read more fascinating history about Ryde or become a member of the group please visit www.rshg.org.uk Some additional text has been taken from our original history page and added, we will also be adding some historically interesting photographs.

Ryde Carnival Association is grateful to the RSHG for their support of the carnival website.

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09/02/2009 by admin.

After a marathon months’ work on the Ryde Carnival Website, it has now been uploaded. You will notice that the colours and style are very different from previous years. The new design has been produced to reflect this years costumes colours which are black and red. We will be publishing more about this in the next month or so.

We have also managed at long last to get the Ryde Illuminated Carnival Photographs into an album, sorry for the delay, but well worth the wait. At the moment we are going over all the photographs that have been on the site since 2002 and will be producing a small set of albums for the years 2002 - 2007 these will have what we consider to be the best photographs from those years, this is to help with space on the server and make the site mangement easier for our site manager who spends 100’s of hours on the site over the year.

The site has been parred down so that it is easier for navigation and will also work on any browser, and older versions of internet explorer 5 and 6 for those who still use those systems. The site has been also tested on the new Eee PC mini laptop devices as well as mobile telephones and the iPhone/Google Phone.

We also check this site for use by users who are colour blind for all of the following defects:-
Deutanopia - red/green color blindness; no green cones
Tritanopia - blue/yellow color blindness; no blue cones
Grayscale/Achromatopsia - quick check for all forms of colorblindness
Atypical Achromatopsia -low cone function; cone monochromat
Protanomaly - anomalous red cones
Deutanomaly - anomalous green cones
Tritanomaly - anomalous blue cones

As well as the following coverage tests:-
coverage test in black - highlight filter limitations
coverage test in white - highlight filter limitations
coverage test in gray - highlight filter limitations

There are still the usual downloads available through out the website from Risk assessment spreadsheets to our Route Map that was redesigned last year. Please keep checking back for changes and updates. If you have any questions about the site or want to make a comment please let us know via our e-mail info@rydecarnival.co.uk

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09/02/2009 by admin.

Ryde Carnival Association are holding a 80s & 90s Night to raise funds towards the running of this years carnival.
It will be held at
Ryde Castle Hotel
on Saturday 11th April 2009
from 7.30pm - 12.00 Midnight
Tickets are £5.00 each and can be purchased from various venues in Ryde, including The Bagel Wrap and Fired Art.
Fancy Dress is optional
There will be a fund raising raffle with a variety of prizes.
All are welcome from the very young to the young at heart.

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09/02/2009 by admin.

Ryde Carnival Association 2009 Selection Evening will take place on
Friday 3rd April 2009 from 7.00pm - 9.00pm
at the Carnival Learning Centre, Westridge Ryde.

If you are interested in becoming a performer for this years carnival we are looking for young women and men  aged from 12 to 21 years.
All are welcome to join us either on our float or our band of followers.

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19/01/2009 by admin.

Ryde Carnival are pleased to announce the dates for the Ryde Carnivals:

CHILDRENS’ CARNIVAL WEDNESDAY 19TH AUGUST 2009
MAIN CARNIVAL SATURDAY 22ND AUGUST 2009
ILLUMINATED CARNIVAL SATURDAY 5TH SEPTEMBER 2009

Unlike previous year the carniavl dates for Ryde do not run during the last week of the Summer holidays, we have made these changes to work with the new school holidays, so that the carnivals can be enjoyed by everyone locally or visiting.

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31/08/2008 by admin.

Last night (30th Aug 2008) proved to be a wonderful evening of spectacle from the Massed band of 120 musicians for 120 years and the “Celebration” Queen costume at the front of the carnival to The Renegades of Rampage Mas Band from Luton.

The evening was everything we had all hoped the sun shone during the day leaving us with a balmy evening which lifted spirits. The crows was absolutely amazing with the streets packed with locals and visitors alike. People joined in from the crowd, they were entertained by RAW Samba prior to the carnival setting off in the high street. The Masses Band of 120 musicians marched ahead of the procession stopping on a regular basis to entertain the waiting crowds.

The Queen costume lead the rest of the parade with rapturous applause and cheering as the costume was spun giving the crowd a glittering  star  and balloon filled vision. The Ryde carnival float came out in full glory with bubbles flowing through the air and the horses lit from inside giving a surreal undersea glow, our young people partied away as usual. Then came the islands own community carnival group Mas Fusion with their outstanding Migoto Matsuri Festival of 120 members who danced and cheered their way around the route showing what a superb quality of carnival is achievable on the Island and proving that the Island is up there with the best designers and groups from the mainland.

Local schools joined in, including Ryde High School who produced a wonderful tableau with well choreographed dance routines that deserved all the applause and cheers they received. Greenmount Samba band headed by their brilliant headteacher Richard May  with their dancers showed just how far schools are able to encompass adults and children alike in carnival.  The beautiful “Butterflies and bugs” from Bishop Lovett worked wonders with their beautiful fluttering display of dance.  The Carnival Centre brought the wonderful “Earth Magic” troupe to the streets with a fabulous music and infectious dance routines again receiving cheers as they traveled the route.

“Santa’s Confused.com” thrilled us all with their wonderfully wacky take on global warming with prancing reindeer who kept collapsing due to heat exhaustion, Christmas fairies, elves, baubles and of course Mr and Mrs Clause with all the fun of the pantomime thrown in. Another brilliant local group was the Wight Strollers who’s “Biggles” tableaux produced some classic flight formations which the crowds absolutely loved.

The three visiting Mas Bands from London and Luton gave the carnival extra punch and thrill and were very well received with their fun and very energetic dance routines interdispersed with beautiful costumes ranging from giant wasps to beautiful butterflies, magic carpets and eastern promise, beautiful flags and banners. We are so pleased that they were able to join in our celebrations of what had to be the highlight of the carnival season on the Isle of Wight.

In between the various large troupes were the Queen’s Floats from the other Carnival Associations from around the island adding beauty and grace to the parade, it was lovely to see all of the floats  at the parade. There were also tributes to Abba with a group named “Mamma Mia” highlighting the never ending popularity of this group and of course the  film and stage show, there was also a “Thriller” group remembering that Michael Jackson was 50 on Friday. Grease was also represented by a group with Sandy and Danny dancing on the back of their car.  Ryde Extreme Performers walked around the route on stilts, as did a spectacular “Snow Queen” and two black devils. The local fancy dress-hire shop Masquaryde had a brilliant take on the jungle with warriors in African style costumes and stilt walkers. Not only the young took part, the Murphy Sisters dressed up as two badly behaved Nuns, who played some very funny tunes as they drove around on their scooters.

Previous Queen’s and their attendants joined members of the Ryde Carnival Association on an open top bus  to enjoy watching the parade from a different angle. Another open top bus joined the parade named “The Magic Bus” with dancers in fancy dress costume partying away. We also had an excellent tribute to the Shadows, namely the “5 O’Clock Shadows” who played Shadow’s music around the route. Ventnor’s Comic Jazz Band turned up and as usual entertained us with their eccentric behaviour, with one member turning up in a wheel chair having broken his leg.

We would like to thank everyone who took part in the procession, the excellent stewards who made the carnival run so smoothly and of course the public for watching.  We would love to hear any comments that you have about the carnival celebrations this year.

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29/08/2008 by admin.

Ryde Carnival’s Procession Officer Brenda Livingstone has set up a Facebook group for past Queen’s and Attendants - This little site will have photographs of the Queen’s and the floats and anyone can add their photographs to it.Facebook Ryde Carnival Past Queen’s and Attendants page

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27/08/2008 by admin.

We have been trying to get the photographs of the Ryde Arts Festival parade on line for weeks, but due to circumstances beyond our control it’s only been possible to sort them out today.

The photographs have been taken by our Publicity Officer Claire Kay and a number have also been contributed  by Mandy from Wight Studio.
If you wish to order a photograph please contact us via info@rydecarnival.co.uk stating the number/s and sizes required and we will let you know the cost and where to order them from.

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