The future of St Pauls Carnival is in doubt after Bristol City Council withdraws funds
Bristol’s iconic African and Caribbean Carnival in St Pauls is set to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2018. However, the future of the carnival now looks sketchy. Bristol City Council and Arts Council England have said in a press statement they will be withholding funds from St Pauls Afrikan Caribbean Carnival (known as SPACC) with immediate effect.
The city council has said that its funding criteria does include a carnival but that the current team behind SPACC had failed to deliver a carnival in 2015 and had no “clear plans” to produce one in 2016. Cleo Lake, the organiser of SPACC, responded that she “cannot understand” why the council doesn’t want to work with her comittee saying “Bristol City Council and Arts Council England seek to gain community support without us – when we are the community.”
The Carnival’s history extends back to the 1960s and is one of the biggest carnivals celebrating in African and Caribbean culture in Europe. This year, however, it was called off due to “unforeseen challenges and setbacks” with organisers denying a lack of funding instead citing crowd management issues. Because of this the city council and Arts Council have said they do not have “sufficient confidence” the trustees could deliver and would be seeking out a new committee to take charge of the carnival in future years.
A spokesman for Arts Council England, Phil Gibby, has said “We have a responsibility to ensure that public money is invested responsibly and that the community receives the benefit – in this case in the form of a great carnival. For that reason we are keeping our financial commitment to carnival in Bristol in place.”
Bristol Mayor George Ferguson has also expressed an interest in ensuring the future of the carnival especially considering the 50th anniversary event in 2018.
(Via: BBC)
