The funfair has closed for the night

Image: © Gerald England Taken: 1 May 2016

The fairground rides have closed down for the night and the normally busy Mostyn Street is free for pedestrians to wander down the middle. The Llandudno Victorian Extravaganza was founded in 1986. The Event was to be staged on the town centre streets, a format conceived a year earlier at Fleetwood. To take full advantage of the opportunity, the May Day Bank Holiday was chosen as the date and a lavish display of traditional entertainment to complement Llandudno's outstanding Victorian splendour was arranged including street theatre, maypole dancing in the street, carriage rides, teddy bears' picnic in Happy Valley, sandcastle competition, visit of "Queen Victoria", parade of Victorians, window dressing competition and a Grand Victorian Ball. Responsibility for staging of the event was passed to a Volunteer Committee who formed Llandudno Victorian Extravaganza Ltd. which has continued to organise the Show to present day. A sister event on Bodafon Fields for which a gate fee could be charged to support the free show in the Town was developed by local transport enthusiasts as the Llandudno Transport Festival. The Heritage focus was diluted by the ingress of modern fairground attractions offering substantial payment to attend. This dilution peaked in 2006 when public opinion said that the whole event had become nothing more than a modern street fair, squeezing out the traditional entertainment that carried popular support. For more information see http://www.victorian-extravaganza.com/history

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