LIPHOOK DISTRICT GUIDES

Carnival

The Liphook carnival is a very important event in the year, both for the village and for our Guiding District. People come to watch and take part from a wide area.

The event is held at night on the last Saturday in October, (the day the clocks go back), and it is one of the biggest carnivals in the south of England.

Liphook Carnival is a local tradition and has a history going back over 100 years and Guides, Brownies and occasionally Rainbows have taken part for at least 35 years or possibly more.

Years ago, Liphook Rainbows, Brownies and Guides each used to enter a separate float, using items like black bin bags to create costumes, and crepe paper, balloons, sticky tape and string to decorate the float.

The results were lovely, but now we have a lot more experience and have joined forces to create one District float which is on a different level of sophistication.

It takes a lot of hard work and planning to organise a float.

The theme and design for the float have to be agreed, jobs allocated, and girls organised to make the decorations. We have to send out letters asking for sponsorship from local businesses, and ask nicely at Altis Tool Hire who always lend us a generator. Resouces such as paint, cardboard and material for costumes have to be obtained.

There is a dance to be choreographed and taught to a large group of Guides and older Brownies, and costumes for 50 or so girls to be tailor-made.

We have to find a business willing to lend us a lorry and driver, and to gently twist arms of owners of items we want to borrow and of people with skills we need. We have to persuade parents and other adults to come along to help. We are always very grateful to these helpers, and we often find that they volunteer to come along again the following year without being asked, as they have enjoyed themselves so much!

Then, a week before the carnival, with the design and general plans in place and the materials and resources obtained, normal life is put on hold for the team, and our Guide hall is awash with paint, glue, wood, scissors, cardboard and staples.

It takes a whole week of intensive work by many adults and children to get everything ready for the big day. And that is all before construction on the float itself can begin. We don't have the advantage that some floats do of having the lorry available before carnival day. Sometimes we haven't even had a lorry until a day or so beforehand!

As well as making items to decorate the float during Unit meetings, lots of girls turn up every day in the week before the carnival (which is luckily often half term), to help paint, stick, cut out and do whatever needs to be done.

The fact that the floats are not just made by adults is generally appreciated by the float judges who take this into consideration when making their decisions.

In recent years, the Guides and Brownies carnival entry has been expertly coordinated by Rainbow leader Jane with the help of her family. Jane's husband Dave has design and practical skills, and daughters Natalie and Alex choreograph and teach the dance routine, giving up hours of their time to get it perfect.

However, bringing our entry to fruition is a real team effort on behalf of all the District. Each Unit spends a good part of Autumn term planning and preparing for carnival.

A few days before the big day, the atmosphere in the village changes as Liphook begins to prepare. Bunting goes up and tantalising glimpses of lorries in various stages of preparation are often seen. A fair moves onto the green outside our halls. The local fancy dress suppliers do a good trade.

On the morning of the carnival itself, once the hot-dog vans and candy-floss kiosks move in, and the public address system is in place, one of the biggest topics is the weather. This is the time when everyone most wants it to be good!

We start work early as soon as the lorry is delivered.

We are either in a mad rush all day trying to finish everything in time, or so under control and organised that we feel a bit uneasy that we must have forgoten something.

Changes to the original design of the float are inevitable once we start putting everything together, so there are always last minute jobs to do.

We don't always have the same lorry each year, depending on which local company is prepared to lend us one, so sometimes the dimensions are not what we expected, but being Guides, we always cope!

The construction and technical jobs have to be completed before creative skills are required. The best thing is putting everything on the lorry and adding decorations and final touches. Some people prefer to help by providing lunch or clearing and cleaning the hall.

Safety of the float construction is a major consideration, and everything has to be checked before we are ready.

We also learnt our lesson after one year when our generator ran out of fuel just as we entered the village Square, and our lights and music went off! Nowadays we have two large generators to cope with our power needs.

We consider lighting is very important and our float is always well lit with an additional light at the back to focus on the dancing Guides. We have progressed from the early days of using a small portable cassette player for music to having a modern professional sound system.

During the morning, the Guides have a final run-through of their dance routine, and often for various reasons, the previously slick performance seems to go to pieces, but we don't panic, as this is traditional, and we know it will all come right again in the evening!

The Guides return to the hall again mid afternoon, together with the Brownies, to have hair and make-up done and get into their costumes.

This is the moment the excitement really starts to bulid and when team work is crucial to get everything done in time for the deadline.

At first sight, the hall always looks chaotic and noisy at this point, but in fact we are usually highly organised and under control!

The Guide hall always looks very colourful on carnival afternoon and the spirit of fun and cooperation as we all help each other get ready, is great.

The Brownies and Guides bring a packed tea and we soon learnt that it is better if they eat it before being made up and wearing their outfit, to avoid smudges , but as the carnival takes place in the dark, minor mishaps are not too much of a problem!

There are always a small team of mums and helpers ready to do the face painting, provide safety pins or hair grips and generally make themselves useful.

The excitement is infectious as the time for departure gets nearer. Once the lorry driver has taken the finished float to its place in the procession in Longmoor Road, we start preparing to leave.

The leaders have had years of experience now of what we need to do on carnival day, and we have the organisation off to a fine art, but nevertheless, it is still usually a rush for adults to find time to get themselves changed once the girls are ready!

When it's time to go, all the Guides, Brownies and leaders walk, in costume, from the Guide HQ past Sainsburys and through the village to the procession gathering point. We sing "Everywhere We Go..." very loudly as we walk to make sure people notice us, although actually it would be hard not to see 50 or so brightly costumed children marching along in a crocodile!

The reason that we regularly win prizes is not just that our floats always look great, which they do, even if we say so ourselves, but more importantly, the Brownies and Guides themselves are the stars.

The float comes alive once the Brownies are in place, the lights are turned on, the music starts, and the Guides line up to do their dance for the first time in public.

While the judging takes place, there is a very long and sometimes cold or wet wait, often of about two hours before the procession gets under way. However, we are always very proud of the Brownies and Guides whose behaviour is always excellent.

Longmoor Road is full of life at this time, with lots of people walking past to have a first look at the floats, and stopping for a chat. Many ex-Liphookians return on carnival night just to be part of it and meet old friends.

It is always appreciated if we win a prize, but even if we don't, the girls are not worried, as participating is enormous fun and is an end in itself.

Once the procession starts, (around 7.00pm), the Brownies melt the crowds' hearts, waving and smiling happily from the float.

The Guides willingly exhaust themselves dancing behind the lorry, continually repeating their routine with very few chances to rest. Leaders either accompanying the Brownies on the float or walk alongside with collecting tins.

When our float reaches the village Square where the crowds are the thickest, the Brownies' smiles are the biggest, and the dancers pull out all the stops. We normally get a big cheer and lots of money is put in the Carnival Committee collecting tins.

By the end of the procession, the Guides have walked and danced a couple of miles and are all exhausted, and it is past bedtime for the Brownies, so everyone, not least the adults, is very tired, but each year everyone agrees we are very pleased we took part. Sometimes we say never again, but we always do!

And then back at the hall, we have to dismantle the float and all the hours of hard work are just pulled apart!

Themes we have covered over recent years include:

• 101 Dalmatians
• Pirates
• Pick your own fruit and vegetables
• The Ugly Bug Ball
• Antarctica
• Old Amsterdam
• Olympics
• Circus
• Grease (the musical)
• Little Mermaid
• Mexican
• Fast food superstars
• Kung Fu Crew
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
• And many others

Hopefully in the near future this page will contain a list detailing which year we tacked which theme, and which if any, trophies were won.

Recent Carnivals

2004

In 2004 our oriental theme was a great success, winning both the children's section and ‘Best on the Move'.

A great deal of work went into the float and the costumes, but this year extra focus went into rehearsals for the dance.

In the past, dance routines had mainly been taught and rehearsed during Unit meetings, which did not allow for much time practicing as a whole group, but for the first time this year, Natalie and Alex held evening rehearsals twice a week for several weeks, and by carnival day, the girls were very polished.

The dance was set to the hit of a few years ago, "Kung Fu Fighting" and the dancers looked stunning in yellow, red and black, with faces painted and hair tied up.

We had around 30 girls taking part in the dance , so organisation was quite a feat. But all the hard work paid off. The choreography and standard of dancing, (we were told), was very high, and to win the Best on the Move trophy was an honour, especially considering that we were competing with local dance schools.

The Brownies looked really fantastic in bright yellow and red outfits, and this colour scheme was echoed on the float itself.

The original inspiration behind the theme of this year's float was the traditional oriental willow-pattern design. However, we expanded this theme to incorporate lots of other iconic oriental images and traditions. We unashamedly combined Japanese and Chinese culture, but you can get away with this on a carnival float!

The motif of the willow pattern fisherman was used, with Brownies holding fishing rods over the sides of the lorry, and fish swimming in the water under the arched bridges.

The main focal point on the lorry itself was the chinese pagoda, which came in useful as storage too! We had lots of fans, fish, lanterns and flowers made by the girls, and oriental writing and a cherry blossom tree as finishing touches.

In addition to the float, we had a trailer added to the rear with a statuesque Chinaman with a long bamboo pole on board.

The main purpose of the trailer was to house and disguise the generator, but it added a good focal point.

The Chinaman was surrounded by amazing dragon masks made by the Brownies, and the name of our float (Kung Fu Crew) was dispayed each side, together with acknowledgements and thanks to sponsors.

The large chinese dragons on each side of the float, painted by a Suzy with the help of Mary, were amazing.

Although we had to dismantle the rest of the float afterwards, the two dragons now brighten up our HQ walls.

Bringing up the rear of the Guide float behind the dancers, were three rickshaws, two transporting oriental dummies, and one for use by anyone with aching feet!

Two of these were named the Tokyo Express and the Beijing Express. The people who pulled them along certainly had aching arms by the end of the evening!

By the end of this carnival, the idea for our 2005 theme was already growing and was discussed as we cleared up the following day.

2005

We excelled ourselves in 2005. We were awarded the trophy for the best float in the carnival.

This was a first for us and a triumph considering we are competing with floats made by businesses and others with a much bigger budget than us.

Our inspiration was the movie "Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang" and the Float was called "Ye Olde Toy Shoppe"

The Brownies were dressed as toys in the old Bavarian toy shop, and looked very striking.

The float was decorated with toy soldiers, windmills, dolls, puppets, kites painted by the Guides and other victorian toys.

The Guides did an excellent routine, dancing to the tune of "Me 'Ole Bamboo". using poles usually used for camp gadgets. The dance required a lot of concentration, co-ordination and remembering left and right.

It was quite a complicated routine but the Guides did brilliantly and despite fears to the contrary, no-one dropped their stick mid-dance, and nobody poked someone else in the eye either!

The Guides' costumes were dazzling and the bells round their legs added to the sound effects.

Fortunately, the weather was kind to us and it was a calm evening, otherwise some of the glittery hats may have been lost!

The leaders and other helpers all entered into the spirit of the occasion by dressing up in costumes.

We had a very scary child catcher complete with long nose. With her black dress coat and hat she really looked the part.

When the sound-track of "Children..... children...., come and get your lollipops!" echoed out as our float entered the square, the atmoshere was electrifying.

As she went around talking to the crowds and shaking her collecting tin, the child-catcher was a little concerned as, with her big net, she genuinely did scare some children (and probably some adults!) in the crowd.

One of the Guiders dressed as a guard and pulled a frightening looking child-catcher's cage, which she made and painted herself.

Inside the cage, holding onto the bars, was a poor little girl, holding her teddy, who had been captured by the evil child catcher.

Of course this was not a real child, but a doll.....the same doll which we used for the chinese lady in the rickshaw in our 2004 carnival entry, and the mermaid on the float in 2002.

Another Guider played the role of the eccentric Grandpa Potts from the film.

She made was a wonderful little shed complete with lamp and flowers and she somehow managed to get round the whole carnival route walking inside it!

Inside the shed, she was dressed in an old military uniform.

Of all the participants in this year's carnival, Grandpa Potts was probably the most pleased to get out of costume at the end.

Two of the Guiders took the roles of the puppet clown and doll from the film, and played their parts very well.

Some of the adults dressed as the workers from the Victorian Sweet factory and had lollipops and 'toot sweets' to give out to the crowd, which was of course very popular. Our sound man Paul was the toy-maker.

Two Guiders dressed as the regal Baron and the glamorous Baroness. What people didn't know is that the Baron's costume was only put together as a last minute thought a few hours earlier in the afternoon!

Excellent as all this was, the piece de resistance, which drew the biggest gasp from the crowds was reserved for the brilliant car designed and built by our own Caractacus Potts (Dad of a Brownie and Guide), together with Dave McCoy.

It was amazing . A great deal of work went into this car over several weeks and with its shiny bonnet and colourful wings, it looked as if it might really fly!

The headlamps and wheels were all authentic looking and every detail had been carefully made and painted.

Caractacus was of course accompanied by a beautiful Truly Scrumtious.

We were naturally delighted to win the Best Overall trophy, but the trophies are not the important thing, it's the enormous fun we have and the spirit of cooperation that makes the carnival so worthwhile, (as well as being a good PR opportunity for local Guiding!).

We have been fortunate in past years to receive a donation from the Carnival Committee for the Guide funds. We are very grateful for this and it is always put to very good use.

If you would like to get involved in helping with our carnival float in any way, or if you are able to sponsor our entry, please contact us.