Tenby Retained Firemen’s Carnival burst into life on Wednesday...along with the rain clouds, but that didn’t prevent participants from ‘soaking’ up the atmosphere and brightening up the town with a colourful cavalcade of characters.

The annual carnival always has a special place in the resort’s calendar and never fails to capture the imagination of the crowds that line the route of the procession or the numerous floats and fancy dress competitors taking part, and this year was no exception, with entrants from all walks of life joining the parade, including Batman, Barbie, Mad Hatters and millions of Minions. Even Paddington Bear travelled all the way from Peru to make the big day!

Festivities kicked-off at the fire station in South Parade early in the day with a coffee morning and prize draw, plenty of fun for the kids, along with various demonstrations by the fire crew, while in Tudor Square there was a ‘play’ fire engine to enjoy.

Despite the poor weather, the carnival parade featured a high number of floats and fancy dress walkers, led by the Swansea East Carnival Display Band, as they made their way from the railway station through the town to Tudor Square, before the winners of the carnival classes for the different categories, and lorry-borne entrants were chosen.

“This year being my first year as carnival chairman, I have been astounded by the amount of support from local businesses and those wanting to enter a float, which just go to show how much the town loves this event,” said carnival chairman Rhys Thomas.

“The actual carnival parade spanned right through the town and ended up being as long as I have seen it for years.

“Thanks from the Tenby fire crew go to all those who donated to our raffle and supported it, and to those who turned out despite the weather to take part and watch yet another wonderful carnival parade,” he added.

Main sponsor of the ever-popular event was Tenby House Hotel, who also held their annual event on the same evening. Sponsorship also comes from Tredeml Print Design Studio and Printers.

Once again, the main recipient of the money raised by Tenby’s dedicated band of retained firefighters during the course of the day will be the Firefighters Charity.

Results as follows:

Best decorated float: 1st - .Under the Sea; 2nd - Dai the Boot’s Alice in Wonderland; 3rd - The Royal Toy Box.

Marjorie and Bert Ford Perpetual Trophy, for the best charity float - Tenby Minions Football.

Fancy dress walkers:

Under 3s: 1. Teddy Bears Picnic (Billy Robson); 2. Little Miss Sunshine (Hallie Paxton); 3. Robot Boy (Cody Glanville).

Under 7s: 1. Pirates of Tenby (Spencer and Ava Odley); 2. Paddington Bear (Blake Ryder); 3. Barbie (Ava Bertram.

Under 11s: 1. Saturday Night Takeaway (Bethan and Louisa Ball); 2. Tin Man (Jade C); 3. Fantastic Mr. Fox (Leon G).

Adults: 1. Alice in Wonderland; 2. Tenby Jellies, 3. Minions (Jessica, Emily, Chris and Natasha).

Many thanks go to the Hawkins family from West Yorkshire for judging the float entries and the Selman family from Wolverhampton for judging the fancy dress walkers.

PICTURES BY GARETH DAVIES PHOTOGRAPHY (TEL: 07836334436)