BIG heads and decorated floats are set to wind through Harwich for the popular annual Guy Carnival.

In its 162nd year, an array of floats, bands and costumes will fill the streets with colour as a procession makes its way through Dovercourt and Harwich.

The traditional annual event is believed to have been started by the Royal Naval Shipyard apprentices in 1854 in conjunction with remembering Guy Fawkes.

Floats carry slogans poking fun at topical news items or local issues in a tradition known as ‘guying’.

This year also sees the 60th anniversary of the classic Big Heads appearing in the Guy Carnival, having first been introduced to the event by the workers of Parkeston Quay’s Marine Workshops.

Today the event is organised by the Harwich and Dovercourt Rotary Club, raising money for a variety of different causes.

Rotarian Chris Root spent 13 years working on a book focusing on the history of the carnival, coming up with the idea as a teenager when studying for his A-levels at Colchester Institute.

He said: “The carnival is definitely part of the consciousness of Harwich even after all these years.

“It is very unique to Harwich, you go outside of the town and it’s rare to find someone who even knows about it.

“I remember going as a child and there being up to 30 floats, it was always a great sight.

“Hopefully we can keep a fantastic tradition going strong.”

It is agreed today that to guy means to make fun of or to ridicule.

This has at least been the case since 1956, when the Guy Carnival was revived by the Harwich Round Table.

The idea is to highlight a local topic, a local person or a local news item and cast it in a comic light.

The procession continued throughout the 1850s and 1860s, but in 1862 it started looking more like a carnival, rather than just a Guy Fawkes celebration.

Some of the people in the procession carried Chinese lanterns, torches and a number of participants wore highly fanciful costumes.

The Royal Naval Shipyard employees were taking part with their band by 1878, also carrying lighted torches attached to poles.

The Guy Carnival will be held on Saturday, October 29.

The procession will start at 6.30pm at the top of Ainger Road, proceeding down Main Road to West Street.

To get involved with entering a float for the parade, go to harwichguycarnival.co.uk and download an entry form.