Thousands of children will be taking to the streets dressed as pizzas and various fruits and salads, to kickstart the Brighton Festival.

Pupils from more than 70 schools in Brighton and Hove will be joined by community groups and samba bands for the annual Children's Parade.

The colourful extravaganza will bring the streets of the city to a halt tomorrow.

More than 4,000 elaborately-dressed youngsters will make their way from Sydney Street, through the grounds of Brighton Pavilion, into The Lanes and down to the seafront.

Around 10,000 people are expected to watch the parade, seen as one of the most spectacular community events in the country.

The parade will be led by Castledean School in Brighton whose pupils chose this year's mouthwatering theme of world cuisines.

Sharon Mee, from Brighton-based community arts organisation Same Sky, which is running the event, said: "The outfits are terrific. We will be seeing children dressed up as pizzas, aubergines and various fruits and salads so it is going to be extremely colourful.

"We also have more samba bands this year than before because we arranged for teachers to have training to become maestros and teach the children how to play.

"Dance workshops have also been arranged at schools so there will be a lot of performing going on."

Children will start lining up for the parade from 9am and it will start at 10.30am. The first children should reach the seafront at around 11.15am and the last should get there by 1pm.

The best places to see the parade are at Sydney Street, the Pavilion gardens and on the seafront.

The climax of the event will be the recording of City By The Sea, a song specially commissioned by the Brighton Festival to mark its 40th anniversary.

The music has been written by Mark Chadwick and Mark Savage from Brighton band The Levellers with words provided by Olivier award-winning West End lyricist Stephen Clarke.

Two performances of the song, conducted by actress Patsy Palmer and presenter Zoe Ball, will be recorded at noon and 1pm.

They will be merged into one song which will be available on CD along with an original recorded by The Levellers earlier this year and an instrumental version. The CD can be obtained by collecting three tokens, which will be printed in The Argus from Monday. Present them at selected Sussex Stationers shops.

An Argus photographer will be in a helicopter taking a birdseye view of the crowds and these will be printed, along with pictures of the procession, in an eight-page supplement and picture spread in The Argus on Monday.