Preparations for the traditional Chapeltown Carnival in Leeds are underway, and this news piece features interviews with different costume designers and committee members as they get ready for Carnival.  This news piece was originally transmitted 22nd August, 1980.  Reporter Petrina Rance. Children are walking down a street, and one Carnival Queen contestant’s costume is being transported in two parts.  Abdul Alia, member of the Carnival Committee, discusses the importance of Carnival.  He...

Preparations for the traditional Chapeltown Carnival in Leeds are underway, and this news piece features interviews with different costume designers and committee members as they get ready for Carnival.  This news piece was originally transmitted 22nd August, 1980.  Reporter Petrina Rance. Children are walking down a street, and one Carnival Queen contestant’s costume is being transported in two parts.  Abdul Alia, member of the Carnival Committee, discusses the importance of Carnival.  He is interviewed outside Primrose Hill High School in Leeds and speaks about the fun, colour, and excitement of the event as well as the origins in Leeds and Trinidad.  Steel drums and students can be seen in the background.  There is also footage of some of the costumes which will feature in this year’s carnival. Costume designer Edris Browne is interviewed at her home in her front garden as her daughter models a Carnival Queen contestant’s costume.  Browne explains that women can only enter as a contestant once, and after her competition, she has taken up costume design over the years winning many prizes.  This particular costume has taken six weeks to make.       Back at the school, costume designer Hughbon Condor shows off his current design.  The news piece cuts between footage of the two designers as they explain their concepts. Browne’s design is meant to represent the Garden of Eden.  Condor’s theme is that of a tropical flower.  He explains the troupe processing with the contestant will be dressed as butterflies, and some of the children in their costumes can be seen. Alia explains that there are about 700 people involved with the Leeds Carnival celebrations, but crowds on the day are expected to reach 10,000.  The news item ends as he and a group of women dance in a conga line in the school yard.  They dance to music from the steel drums being played by the students.  As the camera zooms out on the shot, a small group of spectators can be seen crowded around the entrance to the school.