BRIGHT costumes and plenty of wide smiles lit up a dull Bank Holiday Monday as the annual Caribbean Carnival hit town.

A handful of floats, decked out in a assortment of calypso colours weaved their way around Deepdale as thousands of people came to Preston to celebrate everything that's great about the Caribbean way of life.

Among the more lavish designs was an outfit worn by Mary Pond, whose impressive Peacock outfit was more than 15 feet wide.

After spending hours out on the road, the procession finally returned to its base in Moor Park where new mayor, Coun Geoff Swarbrick and mayoress Jean Swarbrick picked the winning float - the Dinocow truck by Prescap.

And the fun continued into the night as turntables were set up on the park to ensure everyone was entertained into the wee small hours.

Coun Swarbrick said: "This is a wonderful event which gets all the communities involved.

"It was very difficult to judge the winners because there were so many excellent ideas."

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