The Lord Mayor of Bradford Coun Dale Smith is topping off a fantastic civic year with a colourful carnival style parade.
Bradford city centre is set to come alive to the sights and sounds of carnival this weekend Saturday 18 May. The parade will start from the Norfolk Gardens area of City Park at 12.30 and finish at around 2pm in City Park after winding its way through the streets. Good places for catching the action will be City Park, Tyrell Street and Sunbridge Road.
Over 1,000 local children and adults from schools and community groups will parade in brightly coloured costumes sprinkling sunshine. The Sprinkle Sunshine theme for this year’s parade reflects the Lord Mayor’s Sprinkle Sunshine Appeal which has so far raised over £60,000 for local charities.
The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress will be joining the parade at New Market Place after a service at the Cathedral to mark the end of his civic year.
In the run up to the parade young people from across the district have been working with Bradford Council’s Youth Service and the theatre group Q20 to make costumes and masks.
There will be music and dancing from Tong School Samba Band, African drumming and Dholl players as well as street theatre all coming together to create a unique atmosphere.
For the first time in the parade’s history, cyclists will be taking part. This is to celebrate the fact that the Lord Mayor was a keen cyclist in his youth.
Even though the season-ticket holding Lord Mayor will be missing out on watching Bradford City compete in the play-off finals, he is hoping that parade goers will bring a touch of Wembley Way to the city centre by wearing the clubs colours, claret and amber.
After the parade the party will continue with more activities for children including live music, street theatre, face painting, balloon modelling and interactive games on the Big Screen continuing on until 5pm.
Later in the evening City Park will be transformed in to a giant open air electro-jazz night club from 8.30pm until 10pm. This event is part of the Urban Festival
Coun Dale Smith the Lord Mayor of Bradford said: "Even though I am disappointed to be missing out on seeing Bradford City at Wembley, I couldn’t have been missing it for a better reason. I’ve really enjoyed my time as Lord Mayor and this carnival parade is sure to be a highlight.
I’m delighted that so many children and young people are taking part in this year’s parade. I’ve been privileged to meet so many of them during my time as Lord Mayor and they are a real credit to the district."
More information about the Lord Mayor’s Carnival Parade can be found at www.bradford.gov.uk/events
