Llanidloes Fancy Dress

Llanidloes Fancy Dress is an annual street party that takes place every first Friday of July in the small town of Llanidloes in the county of Powys in Wales.

The party, the brainchild of Victor Davies, a former police sergeant stationed in the town, has been running for 35 years and has become one of the biggest annual fancy dress events in the UK,Fact|date=July 2008 considered by someweasel to be the highlight of the Mid Wales social calendar. The popular event has been dubbed by manyweasel as Wales' answer to the Notting Hill Carnival and attracts thousands of party-goers from across the United Kingdom each year,Fact|date=July 2008 most dressed in an array of impressive costumes. Over 6000 revellers attended the Fancy Dress in 2005 and in 2006: this is approximately 3 times the population of the town.

Past years have included a variety of fairground and food and drink attractions, as well as street entertainment and DJs providing open-air music events.

In 2005, new Health and Safety rules resulted in fears that the event would be cancelled, until local businessmen stepped in to reprieve it.

In 2008 Llanidloes will be extending the festivities of the weekend by starting up a free music festival on the next day called Independence Dai 2 at Cae Hafren Sports Ground, where live bands will be kicking off around 2pm with Dance DJs into the night, the same venue will also be open to camping for the weekend; All money raised here will go directly to The Welsh Air Ambulance.

External links

* [http://llanidloes.com/fancy_dress/index.html Town Website General Information about the event including pictures from past years]
* [http://www.llani.com/fancydress A review of the 2006 event]