LAUNCESTON Carnival’s chairman said his committee ‘accepted the hand dealt by mother nature’, cancelling this year’s procession.

Chairman Dave Gordon said he believed this year’s carnival would have been ‘the best yet’, but they took the decision to cancel due to the weather ‘with a heavy heart’.

The committee is now looking ahead to next year’s procession — when the committee will be in its 10th year — and have promised it will be a carnival ‘to beat all others’.

His full statement on carnival day read: “It has been with a heavy heart that the carnival committee have made the decision yesterday to cancel this year’s parade.

“As a committee we have been planning this year’s carnival since last January and I believe this year’s parade would have been the best yet.

“So, as chairman, I feel that I should explain why we made the hard decision to cancel this year’s event.

“The worst case scenario for us as a committee has always been high winds and heavy rain. Launceston Carnival has always been conscious of the health and safety risks attached to our event and this is our main priority. It is important to us and for the long term future of our carnival to maintain our 100% safety record for you all and the only way to do this was to cancel the event due to the severe weather conditions.

“As much as it hurt us to cancel the carnival, it would have hurt us far more if the high winds and driving heavy rain would have caused an injury to anyone taking part, and to proceed would have put many people at risk and this was a risk we couldn’t take.

“Having held an emergency committee meeting [Friday] evening we all came to one conclusion, which was to accept the hand we have been dealt by mother nature and to start thinking forward to 2019. I can promise you this, that is exactly what we will do.

“I want you all to know that the committee really appreciate the support we get every year by the whole community and with 2019 being our 10th anniversary, we intend to start work towards producing a carnival next year to beat all others.”

There was still fun to be had on carnival day. The official crowning of the royalty took place at the White Hart, and the venue kindly put on a fancy dress disco so youngsters could show off the hard work they had put into their carnival preparations.