Lowestoft: Volunteers sought for third First Light Festival

The First Light Festival started in 2019 when it attracted 30,000 people over 24 hours

Organisers of a 24-hour beach festival are looking for volunteers to take part in its opening parade.

The First Light Festival, in Lowestoft, Suffolk, is due to return for a third season on 17 and 18 June for a weekend of free arts, activities and experiences on the South Beach.

Festival director, Genevieve Christie, said they would be having large puppets in the parade this year and hoped the community would get involved.

The festival "should be a great joyful event", she said.

The festival is held on Lowestoft's South Beach

The event at England's most easterly point is held at the weekend closest to the summer solstice.

Ms Christie said: "We will be having a wonderful multi-arts and science festival right by the sea with lots of music, yoga on the beach, comedy and poetry.

"We're really excited this year that we're part of a national project with five other towns around the country which involves large puppets.

"We're going to have some in our parade and we hope that the community will get involved with us in all sorts of ways, in being part of the parade, learning about these fantastic puppets and helping to design one of them."

Events will be held at the end of February to promote the project.

Headline acts in 2022 included comedian Mark Thomas, DJ LTJ Bukem and jazz legend Andy Sheppard

The full programme for both days will be announced at the end of March.

The inaugural First Light Festival in Lowestoft was held in 2019 and attracted about 10,000 people.

It was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid pandemic but returned last year.