Our city through the eyes of a visitor

2:43pm Thursday 22nd May 2008

On Sunday I ventured from leafy Surrey to visit my oldest friend and godfather to my daughter who moved to Brighton three years ago.

I was advised to come through Hove as opposed to the A23 as we had followed hundreds of classic Minis on their rally from London. We duly swung down The Drive and then east towards Brighton. As soon as we got to Hove Lawns the place was buzzing. The weather was perfect and the beach was packed with locals and visitors enjoying Brighton's best asset.

We parked by my friend's house and wandered straight down to the beach a few hundred yards away. I've never seen so much activity and life happening in front of my eyes.

Living in the suburbs of London my family and I just don't experience this kind of thing. To see so many people out enjoying themselves was fantastic.

What a great place to live. Hats off to the festival organisers who had put on all manner of acts and displays. My children and I were blown away. We watched a trapeze act playing out various re-enactments of famous plays along with a great band outside Gemini on the seafront. We wandered around the North Laine, past the Udderbelly and in and out of various artists' houses.

We'd left it too late to book tickets to see any shows but just mooching around the city in full festival flow was brilliant.

We popped up to The Level and saw the fair and then back through Kemp Town ending up on the Palace Pier via the Mini rally where I spent my hard-earned cash on arcades, rides and doughnuts and all things quintessentially Brighton.

Heading back to the car in the early evening, full of fish and chips with sticky candy-floss fingers we felt content, complete and convinced we were going to return next year.

Congratulations people of Brighton and Hove, you have a wonderful city.

• Peter Topping, Byfleet, Surrey