BUZZ Lightyear may not have gone to infinity and beyond - but he got the next best thing.

The space ranger as well as Woody the cowboy, Slinky the dog and a bucket of soldiers became the first ever 'Spirit of Carnival' award winners.

The new award launched on the Isle of Wight was handed out to Tanya Bloomfield and her friends and family at Newport Carnival on Thursday (July 26).

It has been launched with the support of the Gibbs family who own a chain of popular Island pubs including Ventnor's Spyglass Inn, The Bargeman's Rest in Newport and the Steamer Inn, Shanklin.

Each pub is donating cash prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places with the overall winner being chosen by the group and receiving the Gibbs family trophy at the end of the carnival season.

Neil Gibbs said: "We have been involved in carnivals all our lives and we enter our Spyglass float into the Ventnor carnival every year. We wanted to create this award to recognise those people or organisations that have really got into the spirit of the occasion.

"It might not be the the biggest or most impressive entry, but it should demonstrate what our carnivals are all about."

Jane Gibbs added: "I've always loved working with the Island's carnivals an am regularly involved in many events with the groups. We are really pleased to be able to support and encourage those taking part in this much loved tradition. it was great to present the first prize in Newport last night and we can's wait for the next one."

In all, four Island carnival committees have agreed to work with the pubs this year and it is hoped that this might increase in future. They are: Newport Carnival, Sandown Carnival, Ventnor Carnival and Ryde Carnival.