ORGANISERS of this year’s Wallingford Carnival will be paying tribute to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee by choosing their own carnival queen as well as a princess.

And, with the help of the Herald, they will be inviting residents to vote for the teenager they would like to see crowned queen.

The event has chosen as its theme this year, Five Decades of Carnival, and the fun will be filling the town centre on Saturday, June 16.

As part of the fun this year, the organisers have decided to revive the tradition of having the carnival queen and are inviting girls aged between 15 and 18 on carnival day and living in the Wallingford area to put their names forward.

The Herald will be publishing photographs of the entrants taken by Wallingford professional photographer Kevin Harvey, of Images By Kevin, and everyone living within the OX10 postcode asked to vote for their favourite.

Potential carnival queens can pick up an application form from town information centre in Market Place. The town last had a carnival queen in the 1980s.

Carnival chairman Rosemary Sutton told the Herald: “We thought it would be great to resurrect the old tradition of having a carnival queen in the year of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.”

After the votes have been totted up, the winner will be announced at a family fun night at the town’s Portcullis Club in Goldsmiths Lane on Friday, June 8, when the carnival princess and her attendants will also be decided. Girls aged eight to 11 are invited to apply to be the princess.

The organisers are hoping for the usual high standard of entries for the carnival procession which this year is being organised by former mayor Dee Cripps on behalf of Macmillan Cancer Support. It will start from the Hithercroft and pass through the town centre en route to the Kinecroft at about 2pm.

Past carnival queens and princesses are being invited to join the fun.

The carnival will feature live music from Queen tribute band, The Bohemians, who have been sponsored by Paul Simmonds, of Simmonds Removals, local band Live Forever, Wallingford School Fun Band, The Caledonian Pipes and Drums who will lead the procession, and Wantage Silver Band. Members of Thames Valley Drama School will be performing in Market Place and arena events on Kinecroft include James Dylan’s International Motorcycle Stunt Show & FMX and Goring Growlers dog display team.