THOUSANDS descended on Brighton and Hove for one of the city’s biggest weekends of the year.

The Great Escape music extravaganza came to an end after three days featuring 450 shows -making it the largest festival since its inception.

At the same time the Brighton Festival and Brighton Fringe had a host of events taking place on Saturday and Sunday, including the UK premiere of Clairiere Urbaine, a eye-catching outdoor dance performance staged between Wiltshire House and Hereford Court in Lavender Street.

Yesterday also saw the arrival of a giant steam roller at The Level for the Big Steam Print, which brought the magic of printing into the open air for all to see.

Highlights from the Great Escape included performances by Nashville-based duo The Sisterhood, which featured Rod Stewart’s daughter Ruby.

Thomas Cohen performed two shows along with chart topper Jake Bugg while Craig David staged a late-night show where he DJ’d sang and rapped.

Other performers included Mabel, daughter of Neneh Cherry and Massive Attack producer Booga Bear and Greta Kline, daughter of Oscar-winning actor Kevin Kline.

The Great Escape Convention, which is one of the leading conferences for the music industry, saw discussions about YouTube’s role in the music industry, musicians and mental health, and how to get ahead as a musician in our digital-dominated age.

There were also new events in the shape of The Late Escape, a programme of dance music and the Raindance Film Festival.

Not only was it a weekend of top entertainment, it also provided a huge financial boost for city bars, hotels, restaurants, pubs and shops.

Each year, the festival season sees millions pumped into the local economy and with the Fringe and Great Escape enjoying their biggest events to date, this year looks set to be no different.

Great Escape general manager Kevin Moore described it as an "unbelievable year".

He said: “From Craig David on Thursday to Loyle Carner in the early hours of this morning, we’ve had an unbelievably high-calibre line-up of emerging artists from all across the musical spectrum – it’s hard to actually process the range of acts we’ve all discovered over the three days.

“Beyond this we’ve really seen the importance of The Great Escape Convention, with this year’s strands shifting the debate on YouTube’s role in the music industry and setting the agenda on musicians and mental health.

“We’ve had an amazing introduction to The Late Escape, a brilliant Raindance Film Festival and just generally some of the most cutting edge live entertainment you will experience anywhere in the world.

“Our priority now is trying, somehow, to top this in 2017.”

While The Great Escape has finished for another year both the Festival and Fringe continue this week with hundreds of shows.

Among them is Dr Blighty, which celebrates Brighton's role in the First World War.