Organisers of this year's Cowley Road Carnival have launched a £100,000 campaign to secure the future of next year's event.

An estimated 35,000 people attended Sunday's festivities - and the group behind the colourful carnival have already started thinking about next year.

Ian Nolan, who has been in charge of organising Oxfordshire's biggest public event for the past two years, said: "First of all we need to secure the funding and get all that into place before we can commit to what happens next year.

"The carnival has become part of the East Oxford and Oxford calendar.

"There is absolutely no other event in the county that encompasses so many people from so many backgrounds."

More people than ever attended the event, pouring upwards of £350,000 into the coffers of local businesses, according to organisers' estimates.

advertisement But Mr Nolan said a campaign asking people to give £1 to the carnival had proved largely unsuccessful.

He said: "There were lots of people giving pounds, but if everyone gave £1 that would have been in excess of £30,000 and it was nothing like that.

"I think people think of it as a free event and that is something we need to work on because we need to secure £100,000 of funding to make sure the event can happen."

Closing Cowley Road and 26 side roads cost thousands of pounds, as did paying for cleaning the streets afterwards and providing medical cover.

For the past three years BMW has been a key supporter.

Mr Nolan said organisers were now planning to start negotiations with Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council in a bid to secure funding which could support the festivities for three years, rather than just for one event. He was also planning early discussions with community groups and schools involved in Sunday's event to talk about how they could work together in the next 12 months.

He said: "We need to think about how we can make this a year-round activity so people are really getting involved."