Shaftesbury Carnival is an event we have been performing in for years. There are three events throughout the day, the afternoon procession, the Marching Bands Parade and the evening procession. We arrived and got our kit ready for the afternoon and marched around the route, being well received by the on looking crowds. Soon, we'd finished and tucked into a packed lunch provided to us by the Shaftesbury Carnival Committee.

After a nice break we prepared for the routine in front of the Mayor and the crowds (the Marching Band Parade). The crowd applauded as we finished our routine and headed to the evening parade's starting point.

The evening parade was massive. There were dozens of floats and walking entrants in the carnival, along with 4 marching bands and a pipe band! The streets were packed with spectators as we marched through the route. Upon reaching the end of the route, we needed to get back to the coach, unfortunately there was a rather large carnival still winding it's way through Shaftesbury, so in order to get to the coach, we had to rejoin the carnvial in the middle and march our way back to the coach. The Dolphin Marching Band also needed to march their way back, so we joined together as a Massed Band and marched along a portion of the route sounding very powerful as we went!

This was a tiring day, but all the members excelled in their performance. Well done!

Corfe Mullen Carnival is more often than not a very hot parade, today was no different! The Sun was bearing down as we lead the Carnival from one end of the large village of Corfe Mullen, to the recreation ground at the other end of Corfe Mullen. A lot of our members call Corfe Mullen home, so it was important that we looked and sounded to our best. The crowds applauded as we marched past right up to the finish, when we packed up and headed home.

Today was a brilliant today, with all members playing to their absolute best, despite the heat. Let's hope that the Summer of 2009 gives us more of the same!

The Dorset Youth Marching Band playing in Verwood Carnival 2009. For a full review of the event, please click here.