A POPULAR attraction has been forced to cancel its event after a lack of volunteers.

Verwood Carnival organisers have announced it will not go ahead this year and has fears it may not also be happening next year.

Hundreds usually line the Verwood streets to enjoy the procession of colourful characters strutting down the roads.

Many vendors and entertainers are also seen at the carnival.

Now, organisers have had to make the tough decision to cancel the carnival.

Salisbury Journal:

Carnival organiser, Shelley Rose said: “We have a 98-year-old community event which I've been involved in since 2012 and then chairman since 2017.

“We've always been a fairly small committee.

“I came in and took over the carnival in 2017 and since then we've managed to build the carnival into the wonderful event that it is now, and we’ve been supported really well locally.

“But one thing that we have really struggled with is as the event has grown into the fantastic event that it is, we've struggled with manpower.

“For it to be safely managed and not a strain on the committee, we need those numbers to run it safely.

“Everything is very costly, and we will then incur cancellation charges nearer the event. So financially, it would impact the carnival's capability of putting on future events and we can't risk it.

“So we had to have a cut-off, which is why we now have a date in June for volunteers.

We have until June 2024 to get enough volunteers to plan for 2025. It's a really important community event.

"We held an urgent meeting with a call for volunteers but only 4 people turned up.

“If we don't get more volunteers in by then, we're going to struggle to put it on next year.

“Next year, we're going to have to consider whether we need to cancel that or we incur high cancellation charges for that as well.

“It takes three to four days to build the carnival during carnival week.

“The build is crucial and then it's manpower on the day to just act for the committee and run around for us and help us cover it.”