RELIEVED Carnival organisers say last night’s show went without a hitch.

Endless hours of work go into making sure every minute detail is in place so that the procession ends in style, and not disaster.

Highbridge and Burnham Carnival secretary and publicity officer Jan Paul said: “As far as I'm concerned it went really, really well, very smoothly. I was actually judging so I only saw part of it.

“We had a lot of entries and for the first time the tableau carts were as good as, if not better than some of the features.

“We had a really big crowd here, and hopefully they've filled the collection boxes up.

“My favourite cart was Gemini’s tableaux rendition of Robin Hood, entitled To The Trees.

“It was a really beautiful cart and they did a lot of hard work on it and they have been tipped to be the county winners - whether they are or not we'll see at the end of the season.”

This year those responsible for collating the judges’ scores had a secret weapon up their sleeve – a new computer programme which did the hard work for them.

And, according to Jan, any worries over whether or not it would work proved unfounded.

She added: “It was a roaring success and we are delighted with the new system – most of us got to bed at 1am on Tuesday rather than 3am.”

Carnival collection officers hailed the spirit shown by the generous crowds on Monday night.

Tony Williams, of Weston Lions Club, said: “The collection this year has been fantastic. People seem to be giving really freely despite the recession and everyone has had a really nice time.

“It has been a nice, peaceful crowd and the exhibits have been fantastic.”