Now we are 10. A Piece of Cake Carnival 2023

Aim

Raising money for Whitley Bay Carnival 2023 and beyond

Donate a piece of the cake

Your donations will make it a ‘piece of cake’ to fill the streets between 26-28 May with the biggest birthday party the town has ever seen.  We have ambitious plans for 2023 cooking up four months of making, building, rehearsing and planning culminating in a weekend of birthday treats with a giant ‘Birthday Boy’ puppet leading the 2,000 strong parade it’s heart. We want you to be part of it and we want to go on to bigger and better next year.

Salto Arts Productions

Salto has to fundraise for and manage Whitley Bay Carnival. It's run by Carol and Brod, who both live in Whitley Bay. In 2020 the company became a charity so it could access more funding for the carnival. We managed the previous 9 carnivals for the town and are working hard towards number 10 in 2023.

For the first time we don’t have the seed funding that Whitley Bay Big Local and Creative Civic Change have provided since 2014 that has enabled us to go for grants to fund all the costume making designs and materials, the band rehearsals, the carnival clubs, the schools workshops, the stages and tents, sound systems, first aid and more.

In 2022 well over a thousand people paraded through Whitley Bay all in fantastic costumes while many thousands more lined the streets of the town. Everyone enjoyed an afternoon of great, free entertainment at the Spanish City Plaza.

Now we are 10, is a celebratory event at the Spanish City Plaza and Links with a carnival parade at its heart. Led by professional artists, local people will work in carnival clubs on the creation of costumes, music, dance and parade structures. Artists and locals will share skills and have master classes with carnival artists. The Carnival parade, a costumed homemade extravaganza of costumes and parade pieces representing birthday treats bursting with everything from French fancies and trifle to birthday candles and magic tricks takes centre stage gathering crowds through the shopping streets from the metro station and leading them to the sea for an afternoon of picnics, party games, sack races, egg and spoon and tug of war. 

We want the carnival to show the world what a unique and special place Whitley Bay is.  

This combination of creative residents and nine years of continuous community development around the carnival with three years of financial support 2019 - 2022 from Creative Civic Change has meant year round engagement with community band rehearsals and carnival clubs creating places where professionals and amateurs work together to create a high quality warm and welcoming event.

Programme

Within the programme of the carnival we look to showcase new and emerging performers, local artists who live here but rarely perform on their doorstep and street music and theatre which echoes the themes of the carnival and supports the environmental ethos and spirit of the overall event. Our strategy will continue to aim to be diverse and thought provoking. We want people to see  high quality work whether from amateurs or professionals within our programme making Whitley Bay Carnival worth coming to by bringing things to our town that people won’t have seen before. 

We need your help to make the party happen. 

Whitley Bay Carnival is for everyone from babes in arms to our most elderly elders , it’s all about joy, family, togetherness and fun, it’s a year round programme of creative workshops, rehearsals and community feeding the spectacular late May bank holiday celebration we have come to love. A special moment grown out of the energy and support of the community that puts the town on the carnival map along with Notting Hill and Liverpool and Leeds but we have run out of funds to keep it going.  

Carnival is like a great big birthday cake. It needs all kinds of ingredients and a team of bakers to make it.

All the ingredients cost money to buy, but with your help 2023 will be a piece of cake.

Every little helps.

Cost free entry and cost free participation in all the carnival clubs and bands and in the event itself means nobody is excluded. 

This project successfully funded on 20th February 2023