Determined Felixstowe carnival organisers are looking to arrange an alternative event for later in the summer after calling off the annual festival weekend.

The carnival committee confirmed they have had to cancel the main event planned for July 24-26, 2020, but are keen to arrange something else for the end of August.

While the traditional procession will no longer take place, volunteers are planning to put together another two days of fun and frolics for the Bank Holiday weekend, Coronavirus dependent.

The full statement from the Felixstowe Carnival Committee:

'After careful consideration, we regret to announce that the Felixstowe Carnival weekend planned for 24-26 July 2020 will unfortunately no longer take place.

The decision to cancel the event takes account a number of factors, not least of course the scale of the current public health emergency and likely continuing restrictions to prevent the transmission of Coronavirus.

We are acutely aware that businesses – our supporters and suppliers among them – have been substantially affected; many are unable to trade currently and when they are able to resume, there will be staffing and supply challenges to overcome.

However, we must all try to remain optimistic and look forward to better times ahead soon. It is for that reason that the Committee are now looking into staging a seafront event over the late Summer Bank Holiday weekend of 28-30 August.

We hope that by then, Felixstowe and neighbours will be able to come together to celebrate the very real sense of community that exists in our town – it has always been there of course, but perhaps is all the more visible now through the generosity of spirit, support to others and acts of kindness shown by so many during the crisis.

As there will be no procession this year we are also exploring the possibility of a 'virtual Carnival' which would be published on our website and Facebook page. We will let you have more details later.

We sincerely appreciate support from local businesses and organisations through sponsorship and advertising to finance Felixstowe Carnival. In light of the unprecedented challenges facing everyone we will not be reaching out for financial support this year from them and we will also be refunding monies already received.

Finally, we wish to acknowledge our grateful thanks to Felixstowe Town Council, Felixstowe Forward and East Suffolk Council for their advice and support.

Keep safe Felixstowe – we will strive to offer some sort of event later this year to benefit the whole community and with your help we are more determined than ever to make 2021 the biggest and best Felixstowe Carnival yet.'

See Felixstowe Carnival website...