Festivals and Traditions
Whaley Bridge has an annual carnival month during which the 'Whaley Water Weekend' (W3), started in 2000, and Rose Queen Carnival, started over a hundred years ago, take place. The W3 started out as a minor community event based directly on the canal basin. In 2011 the twelfth W3 was held. The event attracted over 2,000 visitors and included both free short canal boat rides and a longer Heritage Trip, with an historic commentary, to Bugsworth Basin. This longer boat trip is run in cooperation with New Horizons from Marple, a 72-foot boat built especially for those with limited physical capabilities. On shore there was Punch and Judy, a mini zoo with Meerkats, a fairground, craft and plant stalls, food and ice cream and a live music on an outdoor stage. 2012's event will be 8 to 10 June. The weekend of W3 is followed by the Well Dressing Weekend, a traditional Derbyshire event in which the local well is decorated with large collages of cones, flower petals, etc.
Carnival month ends with the Whaley Bridge Rose Queen Carnival, (30 June 2012) where groups of local young people from the town, Rose Queen royalty from other villages and invited bands process through the main streets in their finery and on decorated floats culminating in events, stalls and entertainment held at Whaley Bridge Bowling Club. In 2009 a Fell Race, known as The Whaley Waltz, was added to the Rose Queen programme and annually attracts over 180 runners. Organised by Goyt Vally Striders the race starts in the centre of the village and climbs 900 ft to Windgather Rocks. It finishes after crossing the River Goyt on Forge Road. Following the Carnival is the Rose Queen Pet Show, 2012 July 4, where locals bring their pets to compete in different classes.
The final event of the year is the switching on of the Christmas tree lights outside the Jodrell Arms Hotel, close to Whaley Bridge railway station. This is usually done by the chair of the Town Council and is accompanied by seasonable music from members of Whaley Bridge Brass Band. Father Christmas traditionally arrives at the Transhipment Warehouse on the Whaley Wharf of the Peak Forest Canal on a canal boat and processes to the Mechanics' Institute accompanied by his helpers. Businesses make their contribution to the town's Christmas decorations by way of small trees above their shop windows and bright lights around their shop fronts. The Town Council erects two large trees each year, the second being by the Soldier Dick public house at Furness Vale.
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—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)