THIS year’s Sodbury Festival has been hailed a huge success thanks to glorious weather and a varied line-up of entertainment to suit all tastes.

The 10-day festival culminated in Chipping Sodbury’s annual carnival, organised by the town’s Lions club, on Saturday (June 21) which included a colourful procession of Disney-themed floats down High Street and Broad Street.

Raysfield Junior School won the float competition with their entry based on Mary Poppins with Raysfield Infant School coming in second and St John’s Mead Primary School third.

The event also saw a charity street fair in Broad Street and under sunny skies, the crowds were treated to a triple flypast by a Battle of Britain Memorial Flight hurricane and spitfire.

Brian Hardy, chairman of the festival committee, said the bumper crowds made the carnival the best in the festival’s 29-year history.

“Saturday’s carnival day was a real bonus with the attending crowds being considered the biggest yet,” he said.

“All seemed to have a good time browsing the stalls and shops and watching the procession of floats loaded with very excited children as well as grown-ups along with all the vintage cars and walking entries.

“The flyover proved a great success and crowd puller.”

Other events throughout the festival included Jimmy Cricket’s Laughter Show, a fashion show, opera night, school concerts and lunchtime workshops for local schoolchildren.

Mr Hardy said he hoped the whole festival, which finished on Sunday with a Last Night of the Proms concert, had gone a long way to further unite all the different organisations in Chipping Sodbury.

“Needless to say the wonderful weather helped with the success but unfortunately the committee cannot claim any points for that,” he said.

“The committee would like to thank the sponsors, all who attended the various events and the members of the public who supported the Music in the Street and carnival events to the benefit of the community and local traders. We also thank Out of the Blue and Farrago for being the festival's ticket outlets.

“A special thanks to the festival princess Sophie Saxby and her attendants Jessie Lewis-Evans and Scarlett Howes who worked very hard all week, were always smiling and had a great time and a real happy experience.

“I would also like to thank and commend the members of the committee for the long hours, effort and dedication they put in to organising the festival event. Hopefully we can reform in September and start planning Festival 2015 for the benefit of the community and the town as a whole.”