THE biggest free show in town takes place on Saturday with thousands of people lining the streets of Wellington for the annual carnival.

The event has more than 50 entries and organisers are keeping their fingers crossed for a dry night.

Carnival clubs will be debuting their entries at Wellington before a long season of local carnivals, with many of the larger clubs this week working hard to finish them.

The event will see everything from 100ft fully illuminated floats with professionally engineered moving parts to individual walking entries, groups, majorette troupes and local trade entries.

Entries from Wellington include: Wellington and Taunton Young Farmers, Somerset Red Arrows Majorettes, Apple FM and Wellington Pantomime.  

Beech Grove Primary School is again defending its Best School entry – the school remains unbeaten in this category since the class was introduced

One of the larger entries taking part again is Nunsford Nutters, from Devon, who have already performed in other carnivals this year. They will  be at Wellington with their entry What’s Cooking, alongside South Somerset regulars such as Harlequin, Gemini, One Plus One and Eclipse Carnival Club.

Members  from a carnival club in Torres Vedras, Wellington’s twin town in Portugal, are visiting for the fourth year running. Cuzidinho won first place in their carnival in February when they dressed as traditional Portuguese stew pots and part of their prize was an expenses paid trip to take part in Wellington Carnival.

Families and friends of Wellington Majorettes have opened their homes to host the foreign visitors, providing food, accommodation and transport for their stay.

Wellington School CCF Corps of Drums will head the pre-procession display, setting off from Rockwell Green at about 7.25pm. The procession will start at 7.30pm and will not reach the town centre until at least 8.10pm. Spectators can expect the procession to take up to one-and-a-half hours to pass any set point.

A spokesperson for the carnival said: “Wellington  Carnival is a not-for-profit organisation and after running costs are deducted, all surplus money is given to local groups and charities. A variety of collection vehicles will be in the procession, as well as many collectors.

“Please make a donation to the  collectors. Every penny we collect helps us keep this unique Somerset phenomenon continuing in Wellington.

“Finally, a big thank you to the few but dedicated committee members – a few new ones this year, including two ladies from Devon, who work so hard throughout the  year to plan the event and help with other carnivals.

“All of them give up so much of their free time – without their support, we could not put the  event on.”