An Oxford pub manager has said the cancellation of Cowley Road Carnival will “hit businesses hard”.
The manager of the Cowley Retreat, Dave Winstanley, said it was a great shame the carnival was once again not going ahead as it was a “great community event” and always brought in “massive crowds” to his pub.
The carnival used to be Oxfordshire’s biggest free event and attracted up to 50,000 people to East Oxford’s streets in past years.
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However, the colourful procession and live DJ music has not taken place for three years and this year the event was cancelled on June 2 after fundraising efforts failed to make up for the lack of Arts Council funding.
Mr Winstanley said the Cowley Retreat at 172 Cowley Road will still host live music and try to replicate the “carnival vibe”.
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However, he warned businesses will still lose out from the cancellation.
He said: “I was disappointed to hear the carnival was cancelled as it is a great community event.
“It results in a huge increase in people coming in and we will not make up the lost revenue.”
Mr Winstanley said Oxford’s businesses were facing a “difficult time” and the cancellation will be another blow for Cowley Road traders.
He said: “I imagine a lot of the smaller businesses in Cowley were relying on it going ahead.
“When you had carnival day on, it was guaranteed footfall.”
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The carnival’s organisers, the charity Cowley Road Works, had raised £2,239 through fundraising efforts on a Just Giving Page but this was far short of the £20,000 shortfall in funding.
Mr Winstanley said people can still experience a taste of what the carnival was like by visiting the Cowley Retreat and listening to local DJs.
DJs performing include Neil Leonard, Blinders and DJ Amnesia.
The Arabic restaurant Za’atar Bake will also be providing catering at the pub, and it specialises in pizza and kofta.
Mr Winstanley said it was very important to “put something on for the community”.
The planned theme of this year’s carnival before its cancellation was ‘Our Nature Our Future’.
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The carnival’s chairman, Aidan Larkin, appealed to the public for funds in order to pull off “one of the most magical events Oxford has seen for years”.
The event had planned to bring together 1,000 artists and 700 procession participants which would have cost £130,000 in total.
Mr Larkin- who performs as a DJ under the name Count Skylarkin- blamed the funding shortfall on the Arts Council not providing any support and the city council reducing their grant.
An Arts Council spokesman previously told the Oxford Mail: “Between 2016 and 2020 we invested £281,886 in Cowley Road Carnival.
“Our funding programmes have a high level of competition for funds and we recognise this is disappointing for some applicants, but we are unable to support all of the good applications we receive.”
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The city council’s cabinet member for inclusive communities Ajaz Rehman said: “We’re very sad to hear that Cowley Road Carnival won’t be taking place this year.
“We have provided a three-year grant to the organisers Cowley Road Works, which continues till 2025, and we’ve been working with them since early this year to try to support their funding needs to organise Carnival 2023.”
Mr Rehman said the council had encouraged Cowley Road Works to apply for their small and medium grants which had the potential to provide £15,000 extra funding but these suggestions were not taken up.
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