Brighton Festival 2002 was launched today with the biggest ever Children's Parade kicking the event off in style.
The city's streets were awash with thousands of youngsters decked out in colourful costumes and swayed to the sound of samba as crowds joined in the spectacle.
This was the 13th year the Children's Parade has marked the start of England's largest arts festival.
This year's theme of Paradise Gardens turned the city's North Laine into Rio for a few hours.
Children from 60 primary and secondary schools, youth clubs and city groups have been creating outfits for the parade for the past three months.
The parade finished on the seafront where the youngsters joined their families to enjoy the sunshine and to pose for photographs as a memento of their special day.
The parade's producers, arts company Same Sky, had earlier predicted the event would be bigger and better than ever.
For more details on the Brighton Festival see thisisbrightonandhove.co.uk/leisure/festival
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