Will Rye Sports and Rye Carnival Live Again
In 1965 Rye Sports Day was a popular local event, attracting athletes from all over the country. But Television was gaining a hold and first class athletics from the White City was showing athletes of International stature. Spectator support was dropping and the difference from 1950, when about 4,000 people turned up at the Cricket Salts to watch the athletic and cycle races to the mid sixties, when
the numbers dropped into the hundreds had resulted in the event running at a loss and eating into the reserves it had built up in the successful times.
This film was made in an effort to get Rye Carnival going again and combine with the Sports Day to bring the crowds back. In the event nothing materialised and when the money finally ran out in 1969 the event was discontinued.
The Carnival revived in the early seventies but after a few
years of success it faded away again.
Now there is talk of getting several old Rye events going again, perhaps we shall yet see another Sports Festival in the town.
Film from the “Rye’s Own Film Archive” released on Wednesday 14 October
“Rye’s Own” (Hard Copy Back Numbers Still Available)
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