Plymouth’s West End Carnival Returns

What is the West End Carnival?

Every year as part of an inner city regeneration and celebration of culture, the city of Plymouth hosts a summer event called “the West End Carnival”. We have had the pleasure of working with this client for five consecutive years now and each year they come to us with exciting requests to make their event larger and more engaging for the people of Plymouth.

The ‘West End’ of Plymouth is the cultural heart of the city, with a buzzing and vibrant traditional market at its centre surrounded by independent businesses. This part of town is often overlooked by shoppers who are drawn to the developed and expansive high street a short distance away so the event is centred around and very important to the West End.

Stage One: The Brief

As we have worked with this client for several years we had a good idea what would be expected of us again in 2021 but the creative team had some new ideas, new requests and a plan to make things even bigger for their 2021 event. They really wanted to focus on the West End this year to help bring in business after the 2020 pandemic instead of dispersing the walkabout entertainment around the city. Previously the client had mixed a combination of pop up style street shows and eye catching walkabout entertainment to create a festival feel around the city centre.

Stage Two: Planning To Expand

We began by working with the client’s total budget to suggest variations of entertainment options to see which ones gave them the best value for money and most appealed to them. They required an outdoor covered stage and PA system which could be performed on by our team and also some local acoustic musicians. They had some local teams already booked to perform such as steel drum band and a parade of costumed dancers so wanted us to provide entertainment for the main stage, some interactive sessions and plenty of photo opportunity performers. For this event they wanted to increase the number of these and add new acts to the line up.

They also wanted to add some of our Alice In Wonderland walkabout characters to bring a little whimsical fairytale to the event. Considering and making note of everything they had received in previous years we noted down what had worked best and least to ensure we delivered the best package.

Stage Three: Costumes & Performers

The Alice in Wonderland characters chosen were the most universally well known, Alice, The Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts. This event is in the peak of British summertime on the southern coast of the UK meaning the weather is generally at its best for this event, hot and sunny. We opted for a Queen of Hearts on stilts, ground level Alice and a ground level Mad Hatter.

Alongside the walkabout characters our team of performers for the stage were selected to bring fun, energy and variety. They also offered various walkabout performances. We opted for a contact ball juggler mesmerising guests with sleight of hand, a hula hooper bringing the energy of the circus, a touch of class and elegance from a contortionist, a sword swallower to bring the danger element, a giant unicycle juggler to tower high over the crowds, fire performer to heat things up and a family variety entertainer. This seemed like a wide choice of options so there would be something for everyone.

Stage four: Dotting the I's & Crossing the T's

The stage running order was organised so the acts worked around their walkabout sets and the musicians ensuring everyone had plenty of time to prepare for their stage shows and change costume for their ambient sets.

Being a city centre event and the roads being closed off for the duration we had to plan our arrival early enough to unload and set up the stage before the road blockade happened. We opted for classic circus and carnival style costumes for the stage team and ensured we had fun family friendly music to play from the stage between acts to keep the carnival atmosphere going.

Stage Five: Let's Get This Carnival Started!

It was another perfect summer’s day bringing hundreds of families to the West End. Huge crowds gathered around the stage, standing to watch once all the deck chairs and seating were full. Kids and grown ups alike had great fun watching our hula hooper then having a go themselves, getting fun balloons from our penny farthing riding victorian gent and marvelling at the fire performer.

The Alice In Wonderland characters and the stilt walking performers posed for endless social media photos and the whole event was a huge success. We can’t wait to see what we can do to improve and expand for this client is 2022.

“Thanks so much for all your hard work for the Carnival. It was really fantastic! We were so pleased with the whole event and you guys always deliver! Please pass my thanks on to all your performers and we’d love to work with you again next year to make it even bigger than this year.”

– Holly Reynolds

Plymouth City Council, Marketing & Events Manager

Creating custom entertainment options is exactly what our team enjoy doing most. With our vast selection of costumes and our ability to custom make something to suit your specific needs means our performer’s acts can be tailored to suit any event theme.

To enquire about entertainment for your own event please use our Contact page, or if you have your own ideas in mind and would like to discuss a custom package created just for you – feel free to drop us a message.