Sun shines on Castleton Carnival

One of the youngest carnival queens enjoys the parade in the sun

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Cloud-free days have been hard to come by during this wettest of summers but two of the borough's Carnivals, Norden and Milnrow, saw two of the hottest days thus far and Castleton Carnival completed a warm weather carnival hat-trick as the sun burned bright in the sky as the parade wound its way down Manchester Road and ended in a funfair at Springfield Park.

Indeed, this proved to be one of the most popular carnivals in recent memory with a huge parade and hundreds lining the streets as the carnival passed by. This was thanks, in no small part, to the success enjoyed by The Academy, Castleton's dance academy for youngsters, which opened earlier this year. Their dancers and many followers joined the parade and the crowds were four or five people deep for the children's performances at Springfield Park.

They were joined on the parade by a wide range of floats and cars, with the fancy wedding cars and NYPD stretch limo provided by Castleton Ring amp; Ride, the highly decorative cars carrying the Carnival Queens, whilst the traditional Farewell Inn float was this year gearing itself up for the coming football season with their football pitch float an rowdy football associated antics!

Rochdale Connections Trust nbsp;deserve a special mention for their float, which won the award for being the best decorated on the parade. Sixteen children from the Trust, which is a community based charity that works with young people with the aim of putting their lives back on track by offering practical and emotional support, enthusiastically joined in the parade and the award for their huge float was fully deserved.

A spokesperson for the Trust said: "It was a proud moment for all when RCT was voted the ‘Best Decorated Float’ because a lot of effort was put in by young people who often lack achievement in their lives, who are marginalised in society and are rarely rewarded for their efforts.

"The children put in countless hours of effort, supported by staff and volunteers. They showed artistic flair, enthusiasm and learnt valuable lessons about focus, teamwork and reward for positive effort."

The parade was led by Rochdale Mayor Councillor Peter Evans and Mayoress, his wife Helen, alongside MP for Heywood amp; Middleton Jim Dobbin. They were followed by the superb Oldham pipe band, who have been the carnival's lead band for many years.

As was its aim, the Carnival brought everyone in the village together to have fun and add a bit of colour to the streets of Castleton.

A large funfair and dozens of stalls greeted the paraders at Springfield Park to finish the weekend long event. On the Saturday the people had enjoyed a fun day, which built on its success of last year with a range of sporting and athletic events for young children, with kids taking part in egg and spoon races, skipping, sack race, space hopper races and a tug of war.

Some of argued that Carnivals are a dying event but year on year Castleton continues to be a success and this year's event proved to be no exception.