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As far as we know Devizes is the only town that has a confetti battle tradition. Confetti throwing was a popular thing to do in early carnivals in England, Devizes Carnival started doing it in 1913, but then the confetti was usually thrown by the crowd at people in the procession. In France today confetti is often a feature of carnivals too but the tradition there seems to be for the procession to throw it at the crowd! We are not sure how the tradition in Devizes developed into the 'battle' that we have today. Nowadays the event takes place in the evening of the Wednesday of Carnival Week.
A crowd gathers in the Market Place at around half past seven to watch a marching band and at eight o'clock precisely there is a bang and the whole area is showered with brightly coloured confetti from special cannons located in high windows over the Market Place.
This is the signal for the bags of confetti to go on sale! There is a rush to buy and then the air is filled with more showers of coloured paper as people throw it over their family and friends! There is no 'battle' as such, just a very silly half hour or so during which a lot of fun is had and a lot of confetti is thrown about. Expect to get 'attacked' by complete strangers throwing paper! As the confetti runs out and dusk falls a firework display rounds off the evening. Over 2,000 bags of confetti are bought and thrown each year. This year we have a special Skateboard display and film projection between the confetti and the fireworks made possible with a grant from Awards for All. Local skaters made and edited the film just for tonight' showing. The film will be posted on this website after Carnival - watch this space!S
Jennings Fair is also in the Market Place all evening.
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