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

The event has more than 70 entries and organisers are keeping their fingers crossed for a dry night after the last two carnivals were blighted by bad weather.

Carnival clubs will 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 a smattering of trade entries.

Carnival organisers said: “Entries from Wellington include Colin Palmer Disco, Wellesley Cinema, Wellington and Taunton Young Farmers, Phoenix Estate Agents, Flip Out, Spotless Valeting, Deane Vale Motors, Somerset Red Arrow Majorettes, South West Computer Recycling, Apple FM, Wellington Pantomime and Mount Vets.

“Beech Grove Primary School is defending its Best School entry – the school remains unbeaten in this category since the class was introduced, and Wellington Majorettes have incorporated a new song into their routine.”

One of the larger entries taking part are Nunsford Nutters, from Devon, who have already performed in other carnivals this year. They will be at Wellington with their entry Battle of Portaloo.

And larger than life character Mike Daniells, whose entries are always big crowd pleasers, is taking part again, this year with PC M1ke.

Visitors from abroad will also be at carnival with two majorette troupes from France, members of La Rochal’ Twirl and Les Batons de L’Estuarie, travelling from a small town outside Bordeaux to take part.

Members of the twinning committee and council from Torres Vedras, Wellington’s twin town in Portugal, will be visiting for the third year running. They will be bringing with them some members of the carnival club which won the Torres Vedras Carnival in February.

The Portuguese guests are expected to distribute ‘cocottes’ to the crowd – this is a Portuguese Carnival tradition which involves the exchange of small parcels between carnival floats and spectators.

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 two hours to pass any set point – last year the procession snaked from one side of town to the other, a distance of more than one-and-a-half miles.

Carnival organisers 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 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.”