The Cowley Road Carnival began in 2001 as a regeneration project in East Oxford funded by the Single Regeneration (SRB) budget. The Cowley Road area in East Oxford was an area of significant deprivation and suffered from a bad public image. Shops and restaurants were struggling and over reliant on student trade which only exists for six months of the year. Local media coverage was usually about crime, therefore reinforcing negative perceptions. The Carnival was developed – in response to local demand - as a key element of East Oxford Action’s regeneration programme. This sought to change the image of the area and re-brand it in a positive way, in keeping with the nature of the location and the community. Seven years later the Carnival is still going strong, grows larger and better each year, and remains a central part of the area’s on-going regeneration.

The Carnival was initially developed to assist with the regeneration of the Cowley Road area. It also contributes to a number of other local priorities including:

• strengthening communities and involving people
• increasing economic prosperity and employment
• promote lifelong learning, training and skills development
  
• improving the life chances of children and young people
• reducing crime and fear of crime

The process started with focus groups, community meetings and a residents’ telephone survey. These showed that local people were proud of the multi-cultural nature of the road, its vibrancy and its tolerance of different groups. This formed the basis of the regeneration programme and helped identify the potential benefits of a community event. The Carnival was then developed through working with local community organisations, groups and schools. A steering group drawn from the local population was put together and the event started with support from the SRB programme. Initially the event was small and the procession held with a rolling road closure. Once agreement was obtained to close the Cowley Road, the event took off. The first few years were vital, however, to demonstrate the steering group’s ability to run a safe event as well as to demonstrate the public wish for a Carnival.

Key outcomes include:

• community cohesion - the disparate communities and groups in East Oxford are now working together on the Carnival and it is well supported by the local community. For the last three years, 25-30,000 people have attended the event. The Carnival celebrates diversity and many different ethnic communities and cultures are represented. This involvement is constantly being widened, with EU accession countries (such as Poland) amongst those we hope to include in 2008.
• community involvement – the Carnival offers a wide range of opportunities for volunteering and involvement at all levels, including performance, workshops, stewarding and providing stage crew. Over 1,000 people from more than 100 groups were involved in putting on the last event.
• area regeneration – the Carnival is integrated into a co-ordinated wider regeneration package, which has included addressing training and sustainability issues within local businesses as well as growing local arts businesses. Links between the community and local businesses have been developed.
• economic benefit – a study of the economic impact of the event in 2005 identified the benefit of the Carnival as over £1 million (direct and indirect income). This excludes the benefits of changed perceptions of the area, such as a local reporter who said “a few years ago if you said Cowley Road to me I thought crime, now I think ‘Carnival’”.
• educational benefit – young people are engaged in the Carnival through workshops in schools including drumming and other music, dance, costume and mask design. The workshops build up to the children taking part in the processions. The Carnival also offers opportunities for cross curriculum work in literacy and numeracy, history and geography. Workshops for adults and young people in the community are also run, along with training in production management.

The event is run by a volunteer steering group supported by paid staff. East Oxford Action staff remain vital to the event although in the last few years, as a result of sponsorship and grants, we have employed professional staff to run the event, coordinate volunteers and take care of Health and Safety.

The funding for the event comes from a mixture of grants, sponsorship and in-kind support. Grants come primarily from Arts Council England and Oxford City Council. Lead sponsor for the last two years has been BMW Group Plant Oxford and the Mid Counties Cooperative has supported the event since it started. We are also seeking to develop more income from stalls and merchandising. However, the main source of support is in-kind, primarily from East Oxford Action who provide significant staff time, but also from local community groups, businesses, people and other organisations. To make the event sustainable we are both seeking to increase the number of sources of funding as well as reducing costs by developing skills locally to run the event.

The organisation behind the Carnival is East Oxford Action, a social enterprise that was originally a Single Regeneration Partnership. The Carnival is also supported by:

• Arts Council England
• Oxford City Council
• BMW Group Plant Oxford

We need eight permits and licences from the City Council. We need to provide two stewards for each of the 21 side roads, staging, toilets, first aid, security, PAs and meet a host of other logistical and organisational needs. Add to that the complexities of coordinating over 100 community groups and organisations with different views on how the event should be staged. You need to be thick-skinned, show perseverance, get on with people, see the value in the event and don’t take “no” for an answer.

25,000 people turning out year in year out to demonstrate that the local community value the event and want it to happen each year. The lack of problems (local police say crime is lower on Carnival day). The feel of the road on the day is amazing, the buzz, the vibe, the number of people from all walks of life and all ethnic groups who come out and have a great time.

More money, more time, more resources. We would still want to have the bulk of the performers coming from the local community but the event is bursting at the seams on the budget we have.