Festive fun at Garstang's Victorian Christmas Festival

The community event, held over two evenings, brought visitors to the town and residents out to enjoy street entertainment, music, shopping and fancy dress fun.

A particular highlight were stiltwalkers Useful Fools and Festival Chairman Luke Pollard said: “They are absolutely fantastic. They are really, really good interacting with people. That’s what a lot of the festival is about - people just enjoying themselves .”

He continued: “It went really well. We had a lot of new stalls and people who came to the festival really loved it. It seemed to work really well this year.”

The seasonal fancy dress parade, which opens each evening’s proceedings, included many local councillors, local adults and children.

VIP visitors included Father Christmas, Garstang mayor Coun Leah Hynes and the mayor of Wyre Coun Marge Anderton.

Musical entertainment was provided by the Pilling Jubilee Silver Band, The Garstang Ukelele Group, The Buddy Good Guys, drumming group Samba Espirito and The Jetsons UK.

Many of the shops stayed open late and part of the High Street was allocated for stalls set up by local organisations and groups ranging from local schools to the theatre group.

There was also a range of food stalls and a raffle was held to raise funds to help towards the cost of the town’s new Christmas lights

Luke said: “There were loads of different community groups and the local Fairtrade group. It’s a good opportunity for them to raise funds.”