Schoolchildren across Aylesbury Vale have been getting in a carnival mood as they prepare for this year’s Roald Dahl Festival.
Nearly 1,000 children and young people from secondary and primary schools and the Jonathan Page Play Centre have been creating puppets and artwork for the event.
The festival is a day of family activities and entertainment, with this year’s theme based on the animals in the world-renowned author’s classic stories.
It will open with a parade through Aylesbury featuring around 500 schoolchildren with the artwork they have helped create.
Artist Holly Burrows has been working with students from Aylesbury Vale Academy, the Grange and Mandeville School to make giant puppets of beasts and creatures such as the Big Bad Wolf from Revolting Rhymes and the Old Green Grasshopper from James and the Giant Peach.
The students have been involved all the way through the design process and will be asked to operate the puppets in the parade.
Workshops led by artists Stuart McLellan and Pippa North have been held at primary schools across the district to help children create hand puppets, signs and other artwork including animals from Matilda, Fantastic Mr Fox and George’s Marvellous Medicine.
Councillor David Thompson, cabinet member for leisure, said: “This will be a great celebration for children and young people in the Vale as well as a lovely family occasion.”
The festival is on July 6, starting at 11am.