TRADERS in Oxford’s Cowley Road were so disappointed the street’s colourful carnival was cancelled this year they plan to stage their own alternative ‘fringe’ event.

The Cowley Road Carnival, which last year attracted 35,000 revellers, was due to take place on Sunday, July 5, but was cancelled due to costs and a change in organisers, with a smaller scale Carnival in the Park in South Park planned instead.

But now a group of traders and businesses wants an event on the road itself and is hoping to hold a mini carnival to raise money for the Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS).

Larry Reddington, who runs the Music Box in Cowley Road, is among those signed up to take part, putting on music outside his shop.

He said: “I am very pleased that it is happening.

“I think the carnival brings us all together and it is a great event. We realise the carnival won’t happen this year now, but after that we are hoping it will be back on course again because everybody really wants it.”

While details are still being thrashed out, Erica Steinhauer, who is spearheading the so-called Cowley Road Carnival Fringe, has applied to close Cowley Road itself between The Plain and Rectory Road, along with about 30 metres of each of the side roads in between.

A street market would run along part of the distance, with several ground-level music areas in acoustic music, blues, and jazz, circus skills and other workshops, and a teddy bears’ picnic in Dawson Street.

Jan Anderson, who runs Jamaican cafe Hi-Lo with her husband Andy, was keen to get involved. She said: “Where we play all the Jamaican music, often people come and don’t go anywhere else on carnival day because that’s more carnival to them than anything else.

“It’s the one day of the year that everyone looks forward to. It is fantastic to have no traffic for the whole day, people out on the streets dancing and happy, and it’s always such a beautiful atmosphere.”

Ranjiv Angrish, proprietor of Bombay Emporium, said he also planned to open on July 5.

Last year’s Cowley Road Carnival cost in the region of £200,000, but Ms Steinhauer was confident that with the goodwill of individual traders and a scaled-down road closure, the cost of the fringe event would be a fraction of that, with 30 volunteer stewards provided by the SOS.

She said: “I am absolutely certain this will happen. If we don’t get road closure we will do it without road closure and each of the shops will do their own thing.

“We are keeping the road warm for next year.”

A spokesman for Oxford City Council confirmed an application for road closure had been made and said: “We need to gain further information from the applicant before we can continue with this.”

The SOS, which is based at the Old Music Hall in Cowley Road, is dedicated to the conservation of Sumatran orangutans and their habitats. The charity raises money to support grass roots conservation projects in Sumatra alongside a team of Indonesian conservationists, working with local communities.

fbardsley@oxfordmail.co.uk