...carnival

The word comes from the celebrations before the Christian season of lent and, in that form, is lavishly celebrated around the world. Traditional carnivals of Verona in Italy, Binche in Belgium and the spectacular Mardi Gras. The idea of celebrating in such a fashion has been adopted for other times and events whose roots may come from other sources - winter celebrations, harvests, special events just to name a few.

Whatever version you care to look at, or where you do it, it is about being spectacular!

If you are taking part in a parade the simple starting point is planning well in advance, probably months. Trying to string something together two weeks beforehand might just not work. So;

• Work out your theme.
• You may not have to go down the route of building a lavish float although you will need to make your slot look and feel fantastic. It is about filling your space with something that people will want to watch.
• Involve costumes, music, sound and a lot of activity (please don't just stick a few balloons on a car and have a small group just following it!).
• Use spectacular exaggeration - eg. making small things really big (environment - giant snails, butterflies, spiders, flowers).
• 2007 - globe and larges costumes from around the world.
• You can use some of the ideas contained in other sections of this Street Entertainment resource eg. puppets (giant), face painting, jesters, your version of a Chinese lion.

You may also wish to just hold something like a Mardi Gras evening. Get some ideas from the Mardi Gras pages mentioned under Advice and Guidance.

Many of the larger established carnivals have an established support structure and even Clubs.

You can get a general feel by visiting festivals.com/00-02-february/carnavale/glossary.cfm for a Carnival Glossary (can you mix your Mas with your Mardi Gras?), Carnivals Around the World and links.

More on Mardi Gras on www.mardigras.com (start with the Frequently Asked Questions) and holidays.net/mardigras/story.

Look at the Somerset carnival circuit at somersetcarnivals.co.uk for this West Country celebration.

Ideas on UK city based events at birminghamcarnival.co.uk and www.mynottinghill.co.uk.