PICTURES: Arundel Festival one of the '˜best yet'

A vintage parade and dragon boat racing helped to round off this year’s festival which has included processions, an Arundel’s Got Talent! contest, al-fresco Shakespeare performances, classic cars, drumming and dance displays, a duck race and more.

Festival chairman Michael Tu said: “This year’s festival was a great success by anyone’s standards – even the weather smiled on us!

“Every day the town was full with top quality street entertainment on every corner and a wide array of food and drink available.

“The highlights included the dragon boat racing where eight teams battled it out with the Red Lion winning first overall place again closely followed by teams from Hardware Associates and Arundel Museum.”

The dragon boat racing raised money for family charity Home-Start Arun, Worthing and Adur. The charity had its own boat crew, who managed to place fifth.

The money raised will help volunteers to support families who are struggling for any number of reasons through home visits or family groups.

Mr Tu added: “Several charities were raising money during the 10 days – including Help for Heroes, FEAST India, Chestnut Tree House children’s hospice, Snowdrop Trust, Arundel Rotary and Home Start.”

Another big part of the festival was the Vintage bank holiday Monday.

Mr Tu said: “The vintage day produced a wonderful array of vintage cars and visitors in vintage costume who paraded through the Town Square in the annual best dressed competition.

“All of this was topped off with a 15-minute firework display.

“This year’s festival will certainly go down as one of the best yet!”