A summer carnival that regularly attracts tens of thousands of visitors to the city has been scrapped.

Organisers of Brighton Carnival announced yesterday (thur) they had only managed to raise £300 of the £60,000 needed to save this year’s parade.

Brighton Carnival Association (BCA) made a plea for donations in March after it discovered its application to Arts Council England, which had been the event’s main funder for the past three years, had been rejected.

Last year about 40,000 people turned out to watch as 800 people paraded from Middle Street to Madeira Drive during the carnival, which had been scheduled for July 25, this year.

Caroline Fletcher, chair of BCA, said a number of companies had pledged thousands of pounds but a deal could not be struck in time to save this year’s event.

She said: “Basically we have not got enough money and Carnival will not be going ahead.

“Everybody is gutted about it. We got to the point where, although we had a lot of promises for money, we did not have enough confirmed funds.

“We got £300 in cold hard cash. There were a few pledges for about another £500 and had a corporate sponsor promise somewhere in the region of £10,000 but it was so up in the air we could not get anything confirmed.”

She said they had been "too reliant on funding from Arts Council” but would now look at other avenues for funding to ensure its long term survival.

Speaking on behalf of the BCA Ms Fletcher said she was confident the event would bounce back next year.

A fundraising day will be held at Concorde 2, in Brighton, on July 25 and a scaled down parade will go ahead during the city’s White Night festival in October.