Two specially commissioned street theatre shows are among the highlights of this year’s Kemp Town Carnival.

The Maco de Vaca Louca troupe and the Voodoo Love Orchestra will be mingling among the 15,000 crowd throughout the day.

Vaca Louca, aka the Anarchist Republic Of The Mad Cow, is a colourful collective that whips up circle dances and human tunnels and takes inspiration from Venetian carnivals and contemporary Brazilian festivals.

The Voodoo Love Orchestra will be a New Orleans meets Day Of The Dead piece, with 12-piece Afro-funk fusion band Kalakuta Millionaires adding brass and drums to go with the dressing up.

Carnival director Mathew Cook says this year’s occasion promises to be the biggest since the event began in 1995.

There are 32 bands over five stages, with two performance areas stretching from the Thomas Kemp pub to Eaton Road.

Expect more than 100 market stalls selling food, jewellery and arts and crafts.

Flowers are a key theme in the community festival which, after a two-year hiatus, returned last year.

The Parade Of Flowers, featuring three Brighton samba bands, 50 drummers and 30 dancers, begins at 11am and should arrive to the main stage in Portland Place at noon to meet Silver Sounds and Unified Rhythms.

Hundreds of custard pies will be thrown at 4pm in a rather messy event organised by the Bureau Of Silly Ideas.

The organisers discussed holding the event over the Jubilee weekend but Cook says such is the carnival’s size it deserves to be a standalone event.

“It’s grown from a village fayre to Notting Hill Carnival by the sea in a short amount of time and it now costs £38k to put on,” he says.

“The main sponsors are Brighton Wheel, Mishon Mackay, 3Ts redevelopment project for Royal Sussex Hospital and Streamline Cabs.

“But the majority of the money has come from fundraising events and the local community and businesses, so we’d like to thank them.”

* Don’t miss The Argus on Monday, June 11, for full coverage of this year’s event