Carnival was a cracker

2:27pm Wednesday 27th August 2008

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The Devizes Carnival Street Festival served up a feast of entertainment on Bank Holiday Monday.

The free event had more performers this year and the packed programme meant there was something for everyone.

Thousands of people visited throughout the day.

The entertainment was centred on the Market Place but some acts were in The Brittox.

The Market Place had numerous charity stalls, fairground attractions, and food stalls in addition to the entertainers.

Devizes Carnival's artistic director Dave Buxton scours the globe for the best performers.

This year the carnival committee spent £20,000 on the street festival, the costliest ever.

A new act this year was Raz'Bitumes from Rouen in France who presented a cartoonesque street comedy.

Returning to Devizes was comic duo The Strangelings who performed routines on a tandem bike with bananas.

Giant coloured stilt birds pecked their way through the crowds. They were such a spectacular sight that the reaction from youngsters was smiles and screams in equal measure.

A giant smoke-breathing dragon led by the Goblin Queen also had people mesmerised.

For much of the day it was overcast but in the middle of the afternoon the sun shone through the clouds.

Music was provided by Devizes samba band Oi Sambistas!, Kaya Drums, based near Pewsey, Lunasa, an Irish band, Klezmer Festival Band, which played Jewish music, and Bristol-based Smerins Anti-Social Club's blend of ska, funk and reggae had feet tapping.

Other acts included The Vegetable Nannies, a group of people laden with a prize collection of vegetables in an ancient Victorian pram who were showing off their allotment cherubs.

Motionhouse Dance Theatre had to change their performance when one of their dancers and his understudy injured themselves a few days before.

Mr Buxton said: "We try to make the carnival street festival better every year.

"All of these acts are here because we have raised a lot of money."

Click here to see our festival picture gallery