Leeds West Indian Carnival king and queen costumes chosen

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Leeds West Indian CarnivalImage source, Tesfa Walton
Image caption,

The Peacock Queen (above) is to lead Monday's carnival parade

A father and son have designed both winning costumes as Leeds West Indian Carnival elected its king and queen.

Hughbon Condor and his son Sephbon scored the double at the Leeds Royal Armouries show on Friday night.

Hughbon is a carnival veteran who has been designing costumes for almost 50 years.

His 16ft (5m) high costume of the Peacock Queen and Sephbon's elaborate carnival king costume, Two Cocky, took the honours as the best in the show.

Image source, Tesfa Walton
Image caption,

The carnival king (above) and queen represented the Condor family's High Esteem Masquerade Band

The queen's costume was worn by Tahelia Hamilton, 28, and the king's by Rushaun McIntosh, 21, both from Leeds.

Hughbon said: "Getting to create the costume as accurately as I envisage it is the main challenge. It's much more important than winning.

"The queen will lead the carnival parade when it leaves Potternewton Park on Monday. It feels good to keep this carnival tradition alive."

Image source, Tesfa Walton
Image caption,

Eight queens and four kings were in this year's competition

Image source, Tesfa Walton
Image caption,

Leeds Carnival's parade will include over 2,000 costumed dancers

The costumes in this year's competition came from from Birmingham, Derby, Nottingham and Leeds.

The bank holiday parade is due to include more than 2,000 costumed dancers led by the Peacock Queen.

The Leeds West Indian Carnival was established in 1967 as a remedy for homesickness for those who came over from the Caribbean.

Image source, Tesfa Walton
Image source, Tesfa Walton

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