'Day of madness' as pupils turn town into Halloween carnival

Annalise and Frankie, two young schoolgirls standing in a school playground. Annalise has brown hair pulled back into pigtails and has red blood-like makeup on her right cheek. She's wearing a torn white top for her costume covered by a grey cardigan. Frankie has long blonde hair and is wearing a purple cape and hood.

Annalise and Frankie are fans of the parade

Luke Sproule
BBC News NI Mid Ulster reporter

Ghosts, ghouls, vampires, zombies and just about any spooky character you could imagine turned one County Tyrone town into the home of the living dead in what has turned into an annual tradition.

Primate Dixon Primary School's Halloween parade in Coalisland is described by its principal as a "day of madness".

Around 1,000 children and adults took over the town centre for a period on Wednesday with traffic grinding to a halt.

For the young people taking part, it is one of the highlights of the school year.

A "dead boxer" was another costume on display

Frankie and Annalise said they loved seeing their parents who came to watch the parade and seeing all the different costumes.

Ollie, who was dressed as a dead golfer, said the best part of the parade was being able to walk along with his friends.

Meanwhile, Evelyn chose her killer clown costume based on the solid criteria that she thought it was very scary.

Three schoolgirls in their Halloween costumes - on the left a girl dressed as Fiona from Shrek with green makeup and ogre ears and a green and yellow dress. In the middle a girl dressed as Wednesday from the Addams Family with black pigtails and a black and white dress and on the right a girl with blonde hair dressed as Hermione from Harry Potter with a black cape and red and yellow striped tie.

These pupils got creative with their costumes

Principal Seán Dillon said the school had hosted dressing up days for many years before "taking ourselves on tour down into Coalisland".

"We do it for no other reason than it's great craic and it's a great community celebration," he said.

"There just isn't another day like this in the town."

He added that it was important that primary school children enjoyed themselves.

"It has to be fun, like everything else it has to be fun," he said.

"It's just a day of madness for the children and the school."

Evelyn is a schoolgirl and has her dark blonde hair pulled up on top of her head, she has white and red clown make up and is wearing a puffy pink coat over her costume. To her right is a child with a red wig and a brown mask wearing a pair of "bloodstained" dungarees.

Evelyn dressed as a killer clown

Ollie is a young boy wearing a baseball cap and "bloodstained" blue shirt. He has green makeup round his eyes and half a golfball is stuck to his right cheek as if it is protruding from his face. It's covered with two sticking plasters and surrounded by red makeup.

Ollie dressed as a dead golfer

Principal Seán Dillon stands outside the school, he is wearing a black top hat with steampunk style flying goggles on it, white make up with black detailing round the mouth, a velvet red coat and a multicoloured silk cravat/scarf.

Principal Seán Dillon chose a costume with a steampunk feel

The parade left the school at 11:00 GMT on Wednesday and made its way down into Coalisland town centre where crowds of people gathered to watch and cheer as it passed.

Stilt walkers joined the children and a haunted red pick-up truck blasting music from portable speakers led the way.

Traffic stopped to allow the children to loop around the town before returning to school.

A wide shot shows the parade making its way into Coalisland town centre down a slight hill. Costumes include killer clowns, an ice hockey player and wizards.

The parade made its way down the hill into the centre of Coalisland

A wide shot shows the parade passing through the town, on the left of the screen are adults watching the parade, some holding mobile phones to take photos.

Crowds of people turned out to watch

Two girls dressed as grannies - they have grey wigs on and are both wearing dressing gowns, the girl on the right's is pink and her friend's is white with a red bow pattern on it. They are both holding inflatable zimmer frames.

These pupils weren't as slow-moving as they first appeared

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