'˜We already knew that we lived in the best street!'

From left, Carley Gardner, Amie Phillips, Nadia Francis, Lisa Scrivens, Dolly Cowlishaw and Brenda Tregarthen from the Portsea Events Group receive the Best Street Award for Queens Street in Portsea from Linzi Stean, left, from sponsor Colas
Picture: Vernon Nash — From left, Carley Gardner, Amie Phillips, Nadia Francis, Lisa Scrivens, Dolly Cowlishaw and Brenda Tregarthen from the Portsea Events Group receive the Best Street Award for Queens Street in Portsea from Linzi Stean, left, from sponsor Colas Picture: Vernon Nash

But to organise an entire carnival, and for it to be the first of its kind in an area, is nothing short of spectacular.

That is the achievement of the Portsea Event Group, which came together to host the first Portsea Carnival in Queen Street, Portsmouth.

Hundreds of people joined the procession in August, with a riot of colours throughout the street.

The packed Portsea Carnival in August Picture: Keith Woodland

Planning had begun in January, but the dreams of organising a carnival dated back much further, as the organisers looked to replicate the magic of carnivals they went to as children.

It was this event that won Queen Street the Best Street award at this year’s We Can Do It awards at the Portsmouth Guildhall.

Carley Gardner from Portsea Event Group says that the team was stunned to have won the award, which was presented to them by Colas.

She said: ‘ It was amazing news for us when we were told we had won the award. All of us were so pleased about it.

‘We were almost in shock for the first couple of days after finding out – it was such a brilliant thing to have happen to us.’

Portsea Event Group chairwoman Amie Phillips says that the group wanted to hold an event that would become a fond memory for young people in the area, akin to the memories they had growing up.

She said: ‘We are fortunate to live in a really good community already, but we just wanted to organise a day that belonged to us.

‘It is something that we had seen happen when we were all younger, with carnivals going on across the city, and we wanted to do something to create some memories for our own children.’

The inaugural Portsea Carnival was a major success, with more than 500 people in the parade and a further 1,000 people attending the event.

Now, the Portsea Event Group is looking ahead to the future, as they begin to plan a number of events for the local community.

Amie said: ‘We are simply looking to do as much as we can to get the community together, for as many events as we can put together.

‘The goal is to build memories for our children.

‘Portsea Carnival is already booked and confirmed for next year, so we are really excited about that.

‘We already knew we lived in the best street around, but now we have an award to back that up, which is fantastic.’