Many cultures have traditions to mark the end of summer - especially here in the temperate north of the globe where we have to reconcile ourselves to a winter of long, dark nights before the rare pleasure of warm summer evenings returns.

In England we don't have a particular festival for that time - Midsummer comes a bit earlier, and Bonfire Night comes a bit later.

The mediaeval religious festival of Lammas - which has now been overtaken by Harvest Festival - is marked on August 1 but you don't hear much about that any more. 

I've always thought that the seasonal nature of life on the Isle of Wight is one of our unique cultural characteristics that we just don't notice.

I have at times lived on the mainland, far from the sea (don't judge me) before returning to the Island, and it always amazed me how people just go about their lives heedless of the cycle of the seasons.

Planning a big event? Any time of the year is fine!

Opening a business? February will see plenty of customers.

Let's go for a trip this bank holiday - the traffic will be light!

You get the picture. It's not like that on the Island.

From my early childhood in Sandown till today, the ebb and flow of tourists in the summer has had an impact on life that can't be overestimated.

It's not as obvious these days but it still exists and drives so much of what we do. 

There's always a sense of regret, tinged with relief, at this time of year.

Ice-cream shops roll down their shutters. The schools go back, the second-homers pack up their Range-Rovers and return to the home counties.

Now the Island is ours again, and we have a season coming where we can tread the windy downs and roaring beaches alone, if we choose.

So why shouldn't we have a festival to mark that transition?

This year I was considering that question when I realised that we actually do - and I've been going to it most of my life.

Ryde Illuminated Carnival is the last and biggest carnival of the season.

It's held on the final weekend of the summer holidays. Anyone who attends knows that this carnival has a different atmosphere to many of the other carnivals. It is a carnival of carnivals.

Floats and parades from the many other carnivals around the Island come to join in.

There's a lively, even unruly, atmosphere with more fun and games going on than the daylight carnivals.

Some of the entries are of a more 'adult' theme, even.

The crowds are more locals than holiday-makers - the tourists have mostly gone home. 

This is our own Island tradition, and it's no coincidence that this is the oldest carnival in the country.

We Island people have reason to celebrate the passing of another summer, so we have made sure we do it in style: long may it continue!