vehicles up to long, festooned with dancers and up to 22,000 lightbulbs, that follows a route over two to three hours. 2005 included the Masquerade 2000 entrants from Notting Hill Carnival. Bridgwater now attracts around 150,000 people from around the West Country, UK and globally. Parking from the M5 is well sign posted and plentiful, and managed by the committee in association with Avon and Somerset Police. Public access grandstands were introduced in the mid-1990s, which have increased in popularity over recent years. The carnival's purpose is to raise money for local charities from money collection carts in the procession. Between 2003 and 2007, around £115,000 was raised at Bridgwater Carnival. In 2010, the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded the Carnival in Somerset Promotion Project £41,000 to promote and conserve carnival heritage. The project aims to raise awareness of the history of the carnivals within schools and the local community. Carnival concert The carnival concert takes place in the weeks leading up to the carnival. At these concerts, carnival clubs perform on stage wearing their costumes and using pieces of scenery taken from their carts. After being poorly patronised for a period, the carnival concert has become a highly popular attraction in recent years, with tickets to see the event in a Bridgwater hall selling out very quickly – partly due to increased publicity, and partly as the popularity of the carnival increases it is an easy access way to see the carnival over more days. Calendar changes The Bridgwater carnival had traditionally been held on Bonfire night, or 5 November. This was then formalised in 1919 after the First World War, as the carnival circuits were formed to be held on the first Thursday of November – Thursday was traditionally early closing day for shops in Bridgwater. Local Government Authorities and businesses were keen to the reschedule the event to a weekend date – presumably to make it more convenient for visitors to attend. This met strong resistance from many locals who believe the tradition of so many years should be maintained, and from others who are concerned that the new timing could affect the ability of clubs to participate in other local carnival processions – North Petherton carnival has traditionally taken place on the following Saturday. The new timing would also spoil another local tradition known as Black Friday, when locals celebrate their hard work on carnival in an