HUGE crowds lined the streets for the revived Cardigan Carnival parade on Saturday – with the promise of even better things to come in future years.

Mayor Richard Jones had promised to revive community spirit in Cardigan when he took up office earlier in the year and the town certainly responded to his call with a string of successful events.

The highlight was the parade through town on Saturday, with scenes reminiscent of Barley Saturday as thousands of people lined the streets and then descended on the King George V playing fields for a fun-packed afternoon in glorious sunshine.

“I am absolutely made up - I can’t believe how people have got behind it,” said Cllr Jones.

“It was a lot of work and put together in a few short weeks. I cannot praise the committee enough as nothing was too much trouble and support we had from people in the town was mind-blowing.

“It shows this event should never have been allowed to die and it needed to be bought back. Every event has been well supported and this is only the beginning.

“We have more events planned for later in the year and we are already looking forward to it being bigger and better next year.”

The barrel race the previous evening attracted a full entry as spectators again turned out in their droves, along with coverage from S4C. It was standing room only at the bingo at Cardigan Castle, while the quiz at Pendre Arts was also a big hit.

The treasure hunt proved popular with families, while the week was kicked off by fancy dress pub crawl.

“It was beyond our wildest dreams,” said Martin Radley, chairman of Cardigan Traders.

“I had to race up to the cenotaph and when I looked back there was hundreds of people following me. I have never seen anything like that before

“After 17 years of not having a carnival, for it to come together like it did was just what the town needed. So many people played their part and we cannot thank them enough.”