Great Western Coffee Shop

The annual extravaganza, expected to draw in thousands of visitors, will take place on July 12 and attractions at the event in King George V playing fields will include a dog show, children's rides and live music (link below.)
http://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/latestheadlines/display.var.2370391.0.volunteer_appeal_for_towns_carnival_events.php

Thousands?? Is there really nothing better to do in Melksham??

Are FGW providing any extra services?

Sounds like its going to be quite simply mental!

I'm sure a good time will be had by all  ;D

We welcome events posted by members (thanks for your selection by the way, oooooo) but could I ask that such items are posted in the "Diary-what's happening when?" section, which is where you will now find the events that were recently posted on the forum.

This helps to keep them seperate from the day to day transport related items.

Many thanks  :)

Do you work for FGW by any chance, 000000? They consistently underestimate the size of the town and level of support in and around Melksham as well, judging by the truly appalling rail "service" they provide.

The carnival procession and associated events (stalls, entertainments, and in the evening live music and fireworks) regularly attracts between five and seven thousand people throughout the course of the day - more if the weather's good, as it was last year.

Considering that Melksham has a population of around 21,000 that's not actually a bad turnout -although it's nothing compared to another town on the FGW network, Bridgwater, which typically sees around 150,000 people attending their carnival. Bridgwater has a population of around 36,000 - I daresay you'd accuse them too of "having nothing better to do".

Melksham's annual carnival would no doubt see an even bigger turnout were there trains laid on to bring people into the town (conveniently, the carnival procession begins just a short walk away from Melksham station), but requests to FGW have to date fallen on deaf ears.

The principle difference between Melksham's Party in the Park and similar events occasionally staged in nearby Trowbridge and Chippenham incidentally is that the latter's are funded by and managed by their respective town councils and paid for by residents via their council tax, whereas Melksham's is not supported or underwritten in any way by the council - it's entirely staffed, funded and run by volunteers.

I'd certainly make the effort to go if I knew I could get there and back on the rails. I'm pretty sure parking spaces would be extremely limited!

My home town has a population of 30,000, but doubt even 1,000 go to the carnival, that was the only point I was trying to prove, the Melksham Carnival is obviously better than mine!!

Apart from that very small fact that it is operationally very difficult to serve with through services from other destinations on the 'West' network with the current amount of stock.

Update on Melksham's Party in the Park - the weather, whilst not as hot as in previous years, at least stayed dry for most of the day. Police estimated that there were 10,000 people in attendance, but I think they may have been exaggerating - it was probably closer to 7 or 8 thousand.

Our grahame was there with his stand, advertising the Save the Train campaign; I hardly had a chance to chat to him myself as I was busy elswhere but he seemed to have a good spot with plenty of passing trade, so hopefully he had a good day. No doubt we will hear more in due course.