Diss Carnival promises to be Dino-mite

Diss is getting into carnival mood as the town gets ready for the big day next month.

Park Radio will host the carnival, which takes place on Sunday, June 9, through a mix of outdoor broadcasts and live radio link ups.

The news comes in the week that the local radio station, which is staffed by 46 volunteers, learned it had been nominated for three awards.

“Everyone is delighted,” said station director Chris Moyse.

“We have been nominated for community group of the year, business community champion of the year and volunteers of the year in the South Norfolk Community Awards. We’re thrilled.”

Park Radio began life with a test broadcast on Christmas Eve in 2009. It secured a start-up licence from Ofcom in 2015, followed by a full licence in November 2017.

The station has attended every Diss Carnival since 2010, with Mr Moyse, who chaired the carnival team in 2016, leading calls to move the showpiece event from Diss Town Football Club to Diss Park.

“We attracted nigh on 6,000 people to the park – it was a ground-breaking moment and one that I will never forget,” he said. “Diss came alive.

“Once again, Park Radio is looking forward to being an integral part of this year’s carnival.

“We will be meeting the carnival committee on Tuesday to finalise plans, mixing outdoor broadcasts and live, on-the-spot, reports.

“We will have a team of around a dozen people there and Parky Bear, of course, will be in the parade.”

The carnival committee, which arranges the event on behalf of Diss Town Council, has chosen the theme of prehistoric for the 2019 event.

Under the title of Pre-DISS-toric, the carnival will feature cavemen, dinosaurs, The Flintstones, prehistoric animals and more.

Organisers have also brought back the carnival king and queen tradition, which was dropped last year due to a lack of entrants.

This year, the committee asked De Lucy House care home to provide the carnival royalty.

“Around 10 residents took part in the carnival procession last year and had a wonderful time,” said activities co-ordinator Karen Lynch.

“We were absolutely delighted to be asked to provide the king and queen. We put names in a hat and the winners were announced last Tuesday.

“Barbara and Gordon are to be king and queen, while another Barbara, and Paul will be their courtiers.

“They were presented with flowers and certificates by the carnival committee and also met Dinsdale the Duck.

“We celebrated with wine and cake and it was a lovely afternoon.”

Shops in the town have also been busy preparing their window displays with a prehistoric them for the best dressed window competition.

Last year's winner was Albrights of Diss.

From a personal standpoint its great to see the continuing interest and success that Carnival has had since its move into the Town Centre - utilising the two most important assets of the town - its Mere and its Park. We hope the year of planning and hard work from the new team pays off and that the community once again comes out and support them and have fun. Chris Moyse

The carnival procession leaves Diss High School at 12.30pm and makes its way along Walcot Road, Mount Street, through the Market Place, along Mere Street, round the Morrisons roundabout and on to Park Road to the park, in time for the fun day.

The lead car in the procession will be driven by Tony Gillings, in her later father Peter Gillings’ Bentley.

This article appears the the Diss Express May 24 edition.

Find out more Diss Carnival 2019 here