Stowmarket Carnival kicks off town's Platinum Jubilee celebrations
A carnival procession launched a town’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations and attracted hundreds of spectators with a colourful display of red, white and blue.
Stowmarket Carnival began at noon featuring a variety of floats, dancers and marching bands.
It was soon followed by a Battle of Britain memorial flypast with the crowds applauding the Lancaster bomber that soared through the sky.
The procession started at the PPG car park and made its way through town.
Though the day started off grey and overcast, the clouds quickly parted and the sun beamed onto the parade.
Near the front of the procession and waving to the audience was Tesco manager Andrew Doherty, who was dressed in a Union Jack suit.
Andrew, one of the organisers, said: “We couldn’t have done all this without the team and the volunteers. They’ve all worked so hard for several weeks putting this together.
“It’s been absolutely fantastic. To see so many people come out has been amazing - I actually joined the party late, but it was easy to get into and it was lovely to see all the friends, families and children in the crowd.”
The festivities continued as the procession made its way down Ipswich Street.
Hundreds of people in the crowd also donned the patriotic red, white and blue theme.
The Hinchcliffe family were pleased to have witnessed the carnival.
Mum Sarah Hinchcliffe said: “It’s been really great. It was nice to see everyone putting in the effort and all the floats were really well done.”
This year’s carnival followed a slightly different route as it finished near Stowmarket High School, which meant that audiences could walk over to the second event of the day - StowFiesta.
The festival saw hundreds of people arrive at Chilton Fields to enjoy a packed programme including face painting, a climbing wall, live music and more. Most of the activities are free.
As the festival began, organiser David Marsh said: “It’s been so far so good and we’re really really pleased to see so many people arrive.
“For a regular StowFiesta, we normally see around 2,000 people on the first day. As this year is so special with the jubilee - who knows how many more we’ll see.”
StowFiesta is on until 9pm and has even more fun-filled activities in store for tomorrow from 1.30pm.
At 9.30pm today, StowFiesta audiences will be encouraged to head down to the Recreational Ground to watch the Platinum Jubilee beacon being lit.
