The whole town comes out on Carnival day! From lunchtime onwards, there are stalls on King George's Fields, and food and entertainment - well organised by the PIP team. Then - late afternoon - the Carnival floats are judged, and parade through the town starting at 6 p.m. - crowds gathering all the way from "The Avon" through to Kenilworth Drive. And in the evening, there's more music culminating in late fireworks.
I've been helping behind the scenes with the web site for the carnival and it's gone live [here] today. If you had been hoping to see it earlier, point the finger at me rather than Kathryn the organiser as I'm the one who's been dragging my feet a bit.
There are plenty of opportunities for groups, large and small, to take place - and the classifications and what you need to do are explained [here]. And it's been very interesting researching the history of Carnival, all be it with sparse pickings, [here]
Melksham Carnival and Melksham Party in the Park take place this year on Saturday, 17th July ("this year" is 2010).