Futuristic costumes and celestial structures will parade through South Shields announcing the start of a summer-long festival.
On Saturday, July 6, the annual Summer Parade will take over South Shields , with a Space Fantasy theme.
Shields' based carnival company Creative Seed is making outfits for the parade, with intricate costumes, gravity-defying designs and elaborate headpieces all set to bring the theme to life.
They are due to set off around 1pm from the Town Hall before travelling along Fowler Street and Ocean Road to South Shields sea front, with the route ending at Bents Park.
There will be Titan the Robot and other street performers on walkabout as well as a beer tent, lots of music, dancers, face painting and wonky Olympics, ending with Elton John tribute act Gary Setterfield at around 4.30pm. Britain’s Got Talent favourites Boogie Storm will be there too.
The Port of Tyne is back on board with the South Tyneside Festival, returning to sponsor its Sunday concert series for the seventh year in a row.
The popular shows start up again from July 14 bringing four weeks of star-studded free entertainment to South Shields’ Bents Park withformer Wet Wet Wet star Marti Pellow, the Lightning Seeds, Midge Ure, Nick Heyward and Gabrielle.
We were sent a sneak peek of some of this year's parade costumes - and there is no shortage of colour as it will be split into five sections with different colour schemes.
The parade will take inspiration from pop culture references like Mad Max, Star Wars and Doctor Who, along with real life events like the Moon landing and include stilt walkers, marching bands and dance troupes along the route. Creative Seed’s Sandy Harris is confident this year will be one of the best yet.
“Working on the Summer Parade is always a lot of fun and this year’s theme has given us a lot of freedom with where we want to take it,” said Sandy.
“The parade grows in size every year which pushes us to get even more creative each time and this year is one of our most ambitious to date, with all sorts of space creatures making an appearance. We have people coming from all over the world to participate and it is shaping up to be a really exciting day that people won’t want to miss.”
The South Tyneside Festival is organised by South Tyneside Council and supported by BBC Newcastle 95.4FM. For more information about the festival, visit www.southtynesidefestival.co.uk , search South Tyneside Events on Facebook or follow @STynesideEvents on Twitter.
