THE theme for the Children’s Parade at Brighton Festival 2018 has been revealed as paintings.

The annual curtain-raiser to the three-week arts event will take place on Saturday, May 5.

Each school that takes part in the procession will be allocated a painting from a selection of pieces that reflect the global appeal of art.

The paintings in question will be studied in the schools before being presented in the form of costume, music and carnival floats on the streets in May.

This year’s theme was poetry.

Pippa Smith, Brighton Festival’s children and family programme, said: “We were so impressed by the way that schools took their poems to heart this year and we believe that the same will happen with the paintings.

“The works will be studied and explored and become part of the school culture between November and May.

“This in-depth exploration of a work of art is something that most people don’t have the opportunity to do until they go to art school.”

The Children’s Parade is produced by Brighton Festival in conjunction with arts organisation Same Sky for the second year running. The event has taken place in central Brighton for over 25 years.

It is attended by around 5000 children from various schools who are cheered on by thousands of parents and spectators.

The guest director of Brighton Festival 2018 is visual artist David Shrigley.