Doddington Village Sports and Carnival Blog

A s we in the Carnival Committee are getting ready for the Santa Run 2018 (which is on the 7th, 8th and 9th of December!) I thought I’d share a little about what’s happening from a geeky / IT-perspective. A couple of years ago , a very-last-minute idea popped into my head about us being able to have you, the good folk of Doddington, track our location as we crawl around the village with Santa and his Sleigh, and we managed to get it to work in time.  A little rough around the edges maybe, but nonetheless, we had a working GPS tracking system.  When I say ‘rough’, I mean it wasn’t as brilliant as I had hoped that it would have been, but hey, it worked to a fashion. Last year , we managed to get a live video stream working via Facebook Live, so that, again, the good folk of Doddington, could see what was happening on the Sleigh, whether it was before or after we’ve been around to your houses. THIS YEAR… we’re pushing the boundaries of previous years, building on previous effort...

Whilst the Carnival is absolutely fabulous and it may feel like magic, it certainly doesn’t happen by accident.  The guys have been out in the blazing 30 degree sunshine getting the Sports Field on Benwick Road ready for the races on Saturday, but which shows dedication and effort! The weather forecast has changed ever so slightly for the weekend, but like Ernie here, you might still want to wear your hat!! Incidentally, we’d like to give Ernie a big shout-out and say thank you from us all for helping get the running track looking on top form for the weekend. Top man.

It's the Wednesday before Carnival-Saturday, and things may not look like they're moving at warp-speed, but from our perspective, it certainly is! Hopefully you’ve seen already, but The Scarecrows are out in force, with Ziggy Stardust, Harry Potter and even The Queen gracing our roadsides, to name but a few! It's great to see so many people joining in the fun, as it really kick-starts the whole thing.  Judging begins soon! Carnival preparations are coming to a head, which is both worrying and exciting, as this has taken months and months of thought, planning and pestering people by the carnival crew and (finally!) it's all now starting to pay-off.  This year’s Carnival Prince and Princess, Luke and Imogen, are getting set to play their part in the proceedings, and being driven around in their glamorous carriage! The Sports Field plans are also being finalised, as we're trying to keep a similar format to last year, but improve slightly on some of the aspects followin...

Every year, we, at the Doddington Village Sports and Carnival committee, put in a call in with the Big Guy with the red suit and white beard, and ask him (very politely) if we could show him around Doddington, and do a little meet n’ greet with the Naughty and Nice children of the village. As always, he’s super-keen to make his presence heard with some very loud Christmassy anthems to get everyone into the holiday mood, and who are we to deny him? So, we’re already busy preparing the Sleigh, dotting the Christmas i’s and crossing the festive T’s, and generally getting ready for the Santa Run 2017 ! We’ll be publishing routes on telegraph poles. on our website and Facebook Page , etc, in more detail, but essentially, we’ll be showing Santa the sights on the following nights: Friday 8th December Saturday 9th December Sunday 10th December Keep an eye and ear out for us. And definitely come out and say hello to Santa!