Most young girls have dreamt of marrying a prince, wearing a crown and getting to parade around in beautiful clothes.

But the volunteers behind a push to resurrect a town carnival are struggling to find a young woman who would like to become ‘queen for a day’.

Jack Owen, chairman of the Sudbury Carnival Committee, said they had received several applications from little girls hoping to become carnival princesses at the August bank holiday event, which will be the first of its kind in the town for more than two decades. But so far, no-one has come forward to be the carnival queen.

The idea is to choose the queen and her attendants at a ‘Carnival Queen & Princesses’ Dance on May 24 from those who have applied via the carnival website. They will then feature on the main float and become the focus of the carnival procession. Mr Owen said: “Quite a few young girls have put their names forward for the princess role but what we need is a carnival queen, who will really be central to the whole parade. Sudbury has plenty of lovely young ladies and I’m sure one of them would be ideal for this important role.”

Prospective carnival queens need to be aged between 16 and 21. Applicants will be invited to the dance and the successful queen and princesses will get to dress up in their finery for the carnival parade. The ‘queen’ will also be invited to attend civic functions with the mayor.

Mr Owen continued: “It’s more than 20 years since the streets of Sudbury were last buzzing with floats and colourful parades so we want as many people as possible to apply to be part of this, whether as a sponsor, a float organiser or as our carnival queen.”

Anyone interested can visit sudburycarnival.org and download the relevant application form.