Organisers of Thornbury Carnival considering three-day event

Organisers of the event, which attracted 13,000 visitors to the town in July, want to try and expand the carnival from a one-day to a three-day event.

The idea is for the 2011 carnival to start Friday evening and run until Sunday, with more events taking place on the Saturday night.

A special meeting is being held on Thursday, October 7 (7.30pm) for groups and organisations in the town to see if the expansion would be possible.

David Goldring, chairman of the Thornbury Carnival, said: "The stability of the carnival and its future in the life of Thornbury needs to assured with more people of calibre, more businesses and clubs joining in and taking ownership of parts of the event."

He said: "It seems evident that, amongst other features of the annual calendar, the carnival has a potentially major role in raising the profile of Thornbury, with a significant impact on its socio-economic standing, and that is why it is important for all businesses and social organisation to have a concern for its future."

The meeting, to be held at the Cossham Hall, is open to members of any club, organisation or society within Thornbury, which might be able to help co-ordinate and support new events during a carnival weekend.

Mr Goldring said: "Its about potential future developments in the carnival, a consultation meeting with local clubs, charities and businesses.

"It is essentially an invitation meeting, and not one to recruit stall holders, rather to find if there is the will to expand the very successful festival by adding other things onto a Friday evening and Sunday, with possibly a more expansive Saturday evening programme.

"Coming to the meeting does not imply a commitment, rather an opportunity for groups to see how their future plans or calendar might take advantage of such an expansion, and how they might play a role within it.

"So we would welcome a couple of representatives from clubs, societies, and businesses, youth groups, schools to join us."