IT may not be in its traditional home this year, but the organisers of the Cowley Road fiesta are convinced it will still be a great party.

The popular East Oxford event will be staged in South Park in July rather than on the road after fundraising efforts fell short.

Organisers said the large park would offer open spaces for performers and traders, with tens of thousands of revellers expected.

A fundraising ‘Fiesta in the Park’, headlined by hip hop star Roots Manuva and Kanda Bongo Man, will be held on the Saturday night, July 2, before the main event the following day.

Karen David, who is involved in the event’s organisation, said: “We do think people will embrace the park. It is a free and open space where you can run workshops and stages and people can see exactly what is going on. There are going to be more activities than ever.

“There will be a whole area of community organisations running family workshops and demonstrations of dance, music, poetry reading. Then we are hoping to have an area for buskers who would have played on Cowley Road to create a real carnival feeling.

“We have also got BMW working with 13 schools, plus community groups, to put on creative workshops ahead of the carnival to make carnival costumes. It’s going to be a really great day.”

Staging the event in Cowley Road would have cost £40,000, but the total raised was “a fraction” of that amount, Mrs David said.

She added: “It is the funding that is not there. We have to pay for the infrastructure.

“We reached a point about two weeks ago where we decided we cannot go forward because we do not have the money.

“We are as disappointed as everybody but what we are doing is bringing it to the park, having a huge fundraising effort with Fiesta and that money will go into putting it back on the road next year. That has always been the goal.”

Abdul Rahman, the operations manager at the Aziz restaurant, said: “We are disappointed it is not happening on the road, but we are really hopeful that it will still be a great day.”

Icolyn Smith, of the Community Soup Kitchen, which has been involved in the carnival since its inception, said: “I do not mind that we are not on the road this year. The park is a more open space.

“The carnival is always one of our biggest fundraisers.”

For more information, see cowleyroadcarnival.co.uk