The city was awash with colour and swimming in the sound of the next generation at Brighton Festival’s Children’s Parade Saturday. Schools from all over the area put together elaborate costumes, dance routines, giant puppets, musical ensembles creatively interpreting this year’s theme The Planet.

It was a beautiful morning in Brighton, crisp, sunny; perfect marching weather. As early as 8.30am the streets were filled with parents and kids on their way to North Laine to prepare. Madeira Drive at 10am was buzzing with folks from organisers Same Sky, setting up. The road was lined with decorative banners, drumming troops waiting to start rehearsing and ‘Bob the screen guy’ who was building a large set to show footage captured by the ‘Youth Voice‘ roving reporters. Alex Buckley from live arts company Rollmops was helping and explained, “when you’re part of the parade, you don’t get to see everything else going on so this way people can see what has been happening.”.

The corner of New Road and Church Street was already rammed with spectators 15 minutes after the procession set off. People of all ages eagerly watched the parade unfold. We were treated to an exploration of our planet, worthy of any David Attenborough documentary. Parents, teachers and of course, the children, gave us depictions of polar zones, night forests, underwater kingdoms, farmers fields and tribal villages. My favourite had to be Land Army with a giant barrow of vegetables plus the giant orange octopus which was rather amazing if not a little scary. Papier mache has never been used so inventively (except maybe at Mardi Gras).

Two years ago, I was watching the parade with a heavy belly and hormonal tear in my eye. On Saturday the bulge was in my arms shouting ‘fish, fish’ and ‘wow, what’s that?’. With all the effort that had gone into the props, outfits and routines, it restored my faith in family community and I can’t wait till it’s our turn.