A PRESTIGIOUS army band will be providing this year’s Thornbury Carnival with some pomp and circumstance.

Organisers of the carnival, which is now in its third year, have managed to book the Band of the Royal Logistics Corps, who will travel from their Deepcut barracks in Surrey to lead this year’s parade.

The parade will leave the Castle School, on Park Road, at 11.30am and proceed along Castle Street, and up the High Street.

"At a time when the Strategic Defence Review is resulting in cutbacks in service levels, Thornbury is very fortunate to have a Band allocated from the diminishing pool of those available," said David Goldring, chairman of the carnival committee.

The band will lead the parade and later play two stage sets on the carnival field, held in the Mundy Playing Fields, concluding with a finale at 6pm after which the carnival closes.

This year a cavalcade of old classic cars will precede the carnival procession because the older cars struggle with the stop start nature of the parade. The cars will then return to the Mundy Playing Fields for a static display where they will be joined by other vehicles taking part in the parade.

Local groups such as sports clubs, churches, youth clubs, theatre groups, pre-schools, primary and secondary schools are now being encouraged to sign up for the parade.

Mr Goldring said: "It would be good to see the imagination of groups entering making a start on the traditions of decorated floats and masquerades as seen in the more established carnival parades. There is still scope for local clubs, societies, charities and businesses to have a stall on the ground."

A road closure will be in force right along the parade route between 8.30am and 2pm on Saturday, July 2 and residents along the route are asked to remove their parked cars for the duration of the closure, to reduce safety risks and to provide better spectating.

For more information about the carnival and to get involved email david@thornburycarnival.co.uk