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Thousands turn out for Halifax Charity Gala

Video

See the video of this year's Halifax Charity Gala

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Published Date: 16 June 2008

By Megan Featherstone and Cathy Neligan

CARNIVAL fever came to town as thousands turned out for Halifax Charity Gala.

Colourful floats and people in fancy dress paraded through the town centre. People lined the road towards Manor Heath Park, Halifax, for the 52nd annual event.

On the field, the 15,000-strong crowd was greeted by a fairground, charity stalls, food and music, dancing and other entertainment.

Bonny babies and cute kids bid to be the most beautiful and proud pet owners entered dogs in the children's pet show.

Chairman Stuart Taylor said: "We had a great crowd. People turned up in their thousands.

"We were slightly down on numbers compared to last year's record 18,000. But if we can reach our target of raising £20,000 for Halifax charities we will be very pleased."

Each year the gala, sponsored this year by Chadwick Lawrence, raises thousands of pounds for dozens of local charities including Overgate Hospice, Elland, Guide Dogs for Halifax and Calderdale Royal Hospital Children's Unit.

Mayor Conrad Winterburn, who led the parade, said: "We enjoyed it very much and were impressed with all the floats and walking parties."

Pictures by Jim Fitton
Video filmed by Charles Round

Don't miss Tuesday's Courier for two pages of extra gala pictures.

The full article contains 213 words and appears in Evening Courier newspaper.

Page 1 of 1

Last Updated: 16 June 2008 12:22 PM
Source: Evening Courier
Location: Halifax

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bronski,

halifax 16/06/2008 14:48:11

I thought the charity stalls and the procession were brilliant but the most outrageously priced thing was the hook a duck.£2.50 a go.Disgusting.

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BILABONGSBACK,

16/06/2008 15:34:23

Hook a duck £2-50 ,stay away from the pikey stalls and stick to the charity stalls 50p or a £1 at the most,I also attended and had an excellent afternoon.Why no mention in the evening courier of big Ds motorbike event at the Piece Hall yesterday ,another excellent turnout...

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DimebarLover,

Elland 16/06/2008 16:04:57

my kids went on the tramploenes, i gave my husband £5 for both of them, when we got to the front of the queue it was £4 each for 4 mins, its totally unacceptable, i know its meant for charity but your are not meant to rip people off either!!!

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ryburn36,

16/06/2008 17:09:25

so was it the best carnival ever?

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Littlest alf,

16/06/2008 18:17:12

I thought the float procession was pretty dismal. It used to take a good hour for all the floats to pass, on saturday it was all of 15 minutes. Poor do!

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innloader,

gala procession 16/06/2008 19:11:14

the procession was a bit short on entrants and that is not because of a shortage of trucks or the price of fuel,more that local businesses ect can not be bothered to support this event anymore,at one time there were garages,nightclubs,banks and allsorts in the procession.the evening courier do not rely help when it costs about £90.00 for a haulage company to supply a truck and driver for the procession and they clip them out of the video and not even a picture of them either.but at the end of the day what make it all worthwhile is to see all those happy smiley kids passing in the prossesion

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The HCG Chairman,

HCG 17/06/2008 00:30:57

Yes, I am the Chairman of the Halifax Charity Gala organising committee. Any comments either positive or negative will be taken as a valid comment. More importantly I am willing to enter into a debate/discussion via the Evening Courier on any points/comments raised by readers. There is a huge amount of work involved in staging the Gala, a lot of people try to do their best to make it enjoyable. But as in any event there are areas where we could improve. Please tell us and we will try to make the 2009 Gala even better, because it will not be generaly known but the plans for the 2009 Gala start now. I am contactable vie the Evening Courier, details in the HCG Programme or the HCG website. In addition if you are really interested in commenting on the Gala why not join the HCG organising Committee or one of the many participating charities. Finaly I am not anonymous. Stuart D Taylor HCG Chairman. By the way the 2008 Gala was a good event, we have raised a lot of money for Charity and a lot of people had a good day out.

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vicroad,

18/06/2008 07:50:49

If all those that are complaining would like to channel their energies into helping this gala committee they would be able to do a lot more for visitors and the procession on the day.

One of the reasons of lack of floats in the parade is that there are not as many companies in Halifax now as there were several years ago, and there are no as many that are willing to enter a vehicle due to red tape, insurance and insurance claims etc.

So instead of sitting at home complaining 'the parade's not as long as it used to be' - get off you computer stool and help this very hardworking committee!

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