Rain failed to dampen the spirits of the crowds as they gathered in Hoylake on Saturday for the annual Carnival Parade to celebrate Wirral’s Festival of Firsts.
Local community groups, including RNLI crews and Hoylake Ladies Touch Rugby team, paraded from Hoylake Roundabout to Queen’s Park between 1.30pm and 3.30pm as the parade travels.
The community-based arts festival was launched in 2011 and sees 37 events taking place across the Wirral throughout July.
One of the highlights of the festival is due to take place later on Sunday with a performance from renowned poet Lemn Sissay MBE.
Lemn was the first poet commissioned to write for the London Olympics. Amoung many distinctions, he is an associate artist at Southbank Centre, patron of The Letterbox Club and The Reader Organisation, an ambassador for The Children’s Reading Fund and Chancellor f Manchester University.
Sissay is also a trustee of the Forward Arts Foundation, an inuagural trustee of World Book Night and an honorary doctor of letters.
For more information on all the upcoming events, lists http://festivaloffirsts.com