Delicate dresses, fancy dress costumes and fabulous floats are set to return after a popular parade disappeared for five years.

With Sittingbourne Carnival making a comeback and celebrating its 130th birthday join us down memory lane and see how the parade has changed...

A colourful and fun assortment of floats make their way down high streets across the country every summer, with community groups coming up with weird and wacky entries to impress the watching crowds.

But in Sittingbourne the parade has been noticeably missing since 2019.

“People have told me they have really missed it” says Pam Griggs, the ex-chairman of the carnival who stepped down after being involved since 1991.

The 80-year-old said she did not want to be the last person who was able to put on the carnival and “was worried that would be the case”.

But thanks to fitness instructor and now chairman of the carnival Kelly Kay, Pam doesn’t have to worry.

Mum of three Kelly wants to make sure the children of the town have a carnival they can enjoy.

Kelly was herself a past Miss Whitstable and took up the challenge of bringing back the carnival court after one of her own daughters said she wanted to take part.

The 36-year-old has since been taking the court around the carnival circuit where she has been given ideas on what to bring back to Sittingbourne.

She said: “Whitstable and Margate’s carnivals have been an eye-opener for me because it showed how much the kids loved putting their coins in the collections buckets.

“People used to place their 1ps and 2ps on the floats but it hasn't been a big thing in Sittingbourne for a while now so we really want to bring that aspect back.

“We are going to have cash stations in local pubs so that people can exchange their cash for pennies and also a change vehicle which will go along the high street an hour before the parade.

“I am also bringing Babes in Buggies entry where mums and dads can dress up their prams, buggies, wheelchairs or mobility scooters and their kids in fancy dress and march down the high street with the rest of the parade.

“Lorries always used to be a big part of the carnival but because of lorry drivers' hours, they have fallen to the wayside. However, we already have six lorries signed up for the parade next year.”

Kelly told KentOnline that she has already got 30 entries confirmed for the parade next year - ranging from football clubs, bands, dance groups, nurseries and majorettes but hopes more people get involved.

Kelly is holding a neon workout fundraiser for the carnival on Friday, September 1 at the Kemsley Community Centre run by her business Clubbercise.

To get involved contact Kelly through the The Sittingbourne and District Carnival and Court Association Facebook page.

Rather than the 40ft lorries Kelly has enlisted in next year's parade, for the first carnival in 1893 it was horses and wagons that hauled floats through Sittingbourne and Milton Regis High Streets.

The first automobile, the Benz Patent motor car, was just seven years old when Sittingbourne’s first carnival was announced.

But four-legged creatures will be present at the return of the carnival with Just Dandy bringing a horse and carriage for the parade that will ferry the Mayor and Miss Sittingbourne through the high streets.

Allen Whitnell, who has written a history of the carnival, remembers the carnival as an “exciting” time.

The chairman of the Sittingbourne Heritage Museum said he remembers the parades of the 1960s when he was just ten years old.

He said: “I can remember the excitement and the growing anticipation even before the carnival had reached me in Upton Lane near what used to be the Voulnteers Pub which was at 39 West Street.

“The crowds would be really large in some places. There would be people waving flags or streamers and then people walking up and down the crowds selling the streamers, peanuts and whatever else they could flog.”

One particular feature of the parade that Allen remembers was the Kent Farm Insitute's contribution to the parade.

These farmers would hurl, what Allen believes was manure, at the watching crowds.

He said: “But in 1961 a pitched battle broke out between some teenagers and the farm institute students at what used to be The Bull Inn.

“This generated a lot of excitement but it was decided that this was not safe by the council.

“The following year, the students created a float which said ‘Sittingbourne carnival spirit dead and buried’ and ‘ban farmyard humour’.”

Much like today, local businessmen were quick to see the opportunity of parading down Sittingbourne and Milton Regis High Streets.

Auctioneers, valuers and house furnishers Peters and Sons, Dean’s Ginger Beer and Mr A.E. Gorham’s Whisky, as well as people from local industries such as coopers, blacksmiths and tin plate manufacturers took part.

Mr Gorham’s float is said to have been the most popular thanks to the free samples he was handing out.

The carnival has been going on ever since, although there were brief periods without the parade during the First and Second World Wars and then again recently when Pam Griggs stepped down as chairman.

The 80-year-old got involved in 1991, firstly as the treasurer and then secretary before she became chairman in 2007.

Sarah Wells-Maden remembers being in a majorette troupe called the Emerald Battonettes which took part in the parade in 1992.

She said: “The carnival was bigger back then, we always stopped outside of Blair Park care home and saluted the mayor.

“So many different people took part and it was always worth going to watch.”

Fast forward to the early late noughties and the parades were more colourful, at least in the pictures.

Matthew Endersby remembers how he travelled with Kent Dance School on a float that read ‘Only Mugs Do Drugs’.

He said: “It was an amazing day and a very hot day where the girls danced around the float.

“I was on the float which was surrounded by tubs of flowers from my friend's garden.

“It’s fabulous to be part of the history of the carnival.”