Event Report: The Carnival of the Creatures

By Michael Blencowe

People & Wildlife Officer

Lewes is a town that knows how to throw a party. Each year Lewes charity Patina organise the 'Moving On Parade' an event held to celebrate local children moving from Year 6 into 'Big School'. The parade is now in its 14th year and the theme chosen for 2015 was 'The Carnival of the Creatures'. Right from the beginning Sussex Wildlife Trust have been assisting Patina with the event and I was asked to put together some ideas of what creatures we could feature in the parade.

We decided that it was important to highlight some of the wonderful (and weird) wildlife that has a special connection to Lewes and the surrounding South Downs and I nominated 15 of my favourite local animals. A few months ago I put together a presentation which told the tales of these 15 species and I went 'on the road' visiting 15 primary schools in the Lewes area and gave all the Year 6 classes a lesson in South Downs wildlife. Then the children were given pens and paper, let their imagination run wild and got to work designing costumes and models. Dedicated Patina artists spent many hours teaching the children how to make sculptures from willow and tissue and helped them translate all they had learnt into incredible carnival costumes for the parade on July 10th.

July 10th was a gorgeous sunny day and I waited in The Paddock in Lewes as the children arrived in their costumes carrying their models. It was just amazing! The glow worms from Annan School were eating snail soup from snail shells, the yellow meadow ants from Pells Primary were being chased by a giant green woodpecker with a huge tongue, a massive fox was pouncing on the hares from Lewes New School. Barcombe's skylark sang amongst clouds and musical notes, East Hoathly's maraca-shaking wartbiters wore full body armour and fought off a raven and a fleet of swifts from St Pancras circled around Lewes Castle's tower. Southover's 6-Spot burnets were joined by an impressive (and anatomically accurate) caterpillar and lots of bird's foot trefoil (the caterpillar's foodplant). The peregrine and her chicks from Hamsey towered above the parade along with an incredible twisting adder from Iford and Kingston, Firle's scarce forester moth had some suitably extravagant antennae and the masked hornet robberflies of Western Road carried a bowl of their favourite food - grasshoppers. An army of rose chafers from South Malling shined in the summer sun as a huge two-coloured mason bee from Ringmer led a squadron of bees searching for snail shells. Rodmell paraded as our most beautiful butterfly - the Adonis blue- which looks even more stunning when it's 4ft tall. At the end of the parade a flock of sheep from Wallands and Chailey Heritage were ushered through the streets by a big, big sheepdog.

The effort and imagination that had been put into the design and construction of these costumes was incredible - but the amount of little ecological details about these animals that had been included was mind-blowing! At 12:00, with road blocks in place, the whole crazy, colourful procession marched on Lewes High Street with drums beating, whistles blowing and music blaring in what was the wildest Moving On Parade ever. Of course, not being one to miss a party, I joined them in my South Downs costume covered in pyramidal orchids and chalkhill blues. Thousands of people lined the streets of the town to cheer the children on. It was all rather....emotional.

Sussex Wildlife Trust are very proud to have played such a big part in this great event and wish all the children who took part the very best for the future. We hope you'll continue to carry a little bit of the South Downs with you.

Here are just a few images from an amazing day.