How do judges judge the entries at the carnival? Scores of dayglow clad officials walk the length of the route taking notes and marking each of their chosen sections out of 40.

The judges said they each have a specific element of the show such as feature or comedy. But that is broken down into further sections with other judges looking at routine, special effects, interpretation and lighting amongst other aspects.

One judge told me there was no longer bias and all judges were fair giving no favour to carts from their home town, although that had happened years ago. The marks are then added up and compiled into a chart with the winners receiving the highest score. The judges also vary from carnival to carnival and are given different aspects to look at to prevent them from prejudging an entry.

Obviously everyone has their favourites and not all will agree with the judges but it is interesting to note the top three or four in each category were the same ones in Bridgwater suggesting a consistency of marking from different judges.

And what happens if something goes wrong such as a power failure? Then said the judges they can only mark what works or they are able to see, meaning a generator going down can be catastrophic but at least the costumes and design can be judged.

One thing all the judges stressed was that fairness was essential as the clubs put so much work into their entries that they owed it to those volunteers to get it right.