Carnival searches for former princes and princesses

A village carnival is marking its 40th anniversary by trying to reunite its former princes and princesses.

Doddington Village Sports and Carnival was launched in Cambridgeshire in 1986. As part of the celebrations for Saturday's event, organisers have been trying to track down 62 individuals who took part across the years, with 12 responses so far.

Brett Rigby, secretary of the carnival committee, said the search had predominantly been done on social media.

"We've been putting out pleas on Facebook to try and find as many of our former princes and princesses to gather in one place, go on the float to go around the village, but also for a photo opportunity," he said.

The carnival princes and princesses, aged nine to 11, are picked from the local primary school in a random draw. They then lead the procession and wear a crown or tiara while travelling in a carriage.

A scarecrow and fancy dress competition is also set to take place.

Organisers said a road closure was expected to start at 09:00 BST through the village.

"With the parade itself there'll be lots of people coming out and watching the parade go through the village, and then over at the sports field we typically get 800-plus people there," Rigby said.

Doddington historian David Edwards said that although the carnival dated back to 1986, the village sports day, held on the same day, goes back to 1922.

"It was originally a sports day for the village school [and] it was suggested by the headmaster at the time in 1922 that we needed a school sports day and that's how it started," he said.

"Back in '86 it was a fairly small start to the affair and only five floats and a fancy dress competition, but it grew from there."

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