Even when the sun hides behind the clouds, the fun of Buxton carnival shines through on the faces of the children and the adults, who dress up, sing, dance and get into the party mood. Starting off with the famous Buxton procession, the parade follows the path of the annual five mile road race. The resident band leads the way and fanfares the followers, packed with colour and sound with no fewer than six bands providing the music for the whole spectrum of colourful floats and costumes.
The carnival queen comes next with her retinue, followed by a huge variety of floats and walkers bringing the characters and events to life. With floats depicting nursery rhymes, different countries and TV programmes, the spectacle is wonderful and everyone gets into the party spirit whatever the weather.
Entertainment continues all day, even when the procession is over, with a free concert in the Crescent and then it’s time for the ever popular duck race and more dancing and singing and frolicking about.
Buxton carnival coincides with the well dressings which take place every year, not only in Buxton, but throughout Derbyshire. The first Buxton well dressing took place in 1840 and was arranged as a token of thanks to the sixth Duke of Devonshire from the townspeople of Buxton, for arranging a supply of water to be piped from cold springs via a pump on the outskirts of Buxton to the town’s market place. The well is still decorated on this site today and many other sites throughout Buxton, with a team of around 50 people involved puddling the clay, drawing the designs, dressing and erecting the well dressing boards. These happy volunteers spend around 500 hours completing the process but it’s a great community driven project and the locals love a chance to get together and have a natter over the flower petals, nuts and pulses and bits of collage they can use to make these stunning designs, which last the whole week through.
Buxton Festival is a happy marriage of music, opera and books and is a summer celebration of the very best music and literature at the heart of the beautiful Peak District. With top quality productions with artists and speakers a worldwide reputation, the varied programme sees rarely performed opera, fantastic music and engaging literature and offers something for everyone, young and old alike. Running throughout July, there is always something to see and do in Buxton in the summer, in the glorious Pavilion Gardens, the Opera house and the street parties throughout the town.
The whole place seems to come together and the community unites, helping each other dress their houses with bunting, completing the well dressings making costumes for the children to take part in the floats of Buxton carnival. It is a time when families take time out to spend together and who cares what the weather is doing, because even if it is raining, it doesn’t stop the steadfast people of Buxton enjoying themselves, no matter what.
