Hanging Around The Park With Echoing Skeletons

Today we went into town again as there was another event on - on this occasion The Echoes of Maidstone Carnival, a joint venture between the local Borough Council and Emergency Exit Arts, and which we considered far too good an opportunity to miss to get our images for the day. 
The event started with a parade through the town centre with up to 350 people taking part including dancers, local children and community groups, drummers (the gloriously propulsive Old School Samba band who can be seen in my second extra), a plethora of brightly covered papier mache sculptures amongst which were an elephant (this can be seen being held aloft in my first extra), a swan, horses, birds and even a even an antique stagecoach as well as a towering articulated Transformer constructed from old purple wheelie bins!
What a glorious sight and sound it all was as we followed it through the town and on to its final destination in Brenchley Gardens. My main image was taken watching this wonderfully talented young gymnast performing acrobatic manoeuvres hanging from specialised fabric which I later found out is called aerial silk. I also just loved the scene that unfolded on front of me with the dinosaur skeleton head on the right hand side of the frame echoed by the guy wearing the t-shirt with the skeleton on it on the far left hand side and the picnickers in the background appearing to be totally oblivious to it all!
My last shot was of the aforementioned wheelie bin Transformer as it was being piloted around the gardens. We thoroughly enjoyed the event and a huge thank you should go out to our local Borough Council who have put on several of these events over the last few months which really have helped to make the town feel like such an inviting and enjoyable place to be.