Update on Eastbourne Sunshine Carnival

Patron and former MP Stephen Lloyd has announced in a letter on the carnival Facebook page that ongoing health concerns had lead to the cancelling of the event.

He’s stressed the carnival committee hope and expect the carnival to be back next year.

Mr Lloyd said, “I’m sorry to report the decision has been taken to cancel this years carnival.

“When we first postponed the event at the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdown we hoped that after a few months the situation around social distancing would be resolved. Hence our expectation September 2020 would see the return of our wonderful Sunshine Carnival.

“Sadly this is not the case. Our health and safety advisor has expressed his concerns to the carnival committee that we could not be sure all 20,000 people who turn up to either take part or watch the carnival, would be able to do so safely socially-distanced. And as this awful virus continues to present a threat to people’s health the committee agreed unanimously the safe thing to do would be for us to cancel this years event.

“Please rest assured that we have every intention of staging it again next year and as soon as a date is chosen, we will notify you all.“

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