Festival to be recycled

Up to 1,200 people are estimated to have attended the free, seafront festival during the course of the afternoon and hundreds more were treated to a taster in the town centre in the morning, when the Weapons of Sound, who have played at Buckingham Palace, Glastonbury Festival and the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony, gave a "junk funk" performance in the precinct on their recycled instruments.

The Weapons struck a chord with the overall theme of the festival, combining creativity and fun with the message that there is an alternative to consuming and throwing away so much.

That came across loud and clear, too, in the impressive fashion show staged at the festival site on The Green, when children from Angmering and Littlehampton Community schools, Rustington Rainbow Guides, the Littlehampton Cheerleaders' Group, Littlehampton Carnival Queen Shelley Bone and Carnival Princesses Nicola Watson and Tara Moore were among the models in a fashion show of recycled clothes.

Arun District Council staff Alex David and Elizabeth Irving spent six months preparing the catwalk show, with fashions including school prom outfits, pleated newspaper skirts and wedding wear '” all the garments coming from charity shops or the back of wardrobes.

Arun's Mary Campling was the compre, and all the models were rewarded either with a draw prize or a present.

Other activities included a percussion workshop led by Weapons of Sound, "nest building" from recycled materials, a glass recycling display, with a large, walking milk bottle and interactive computer games, a pets' corner run by Hobbs Farm, Yapton, and Arun's own recycling roadshow.

One of the stars of the event was a huge, motorised dustbin, which cruised around the town centre in the morning, and was then on view at the festival site, highlighting how much rubbish the average family produces in a week.

Arun chairman Dr James Walsh and the council's cabinet member for the environment, Stephen Brookman, praised the efforts of all those taking part.

Major sponsors included Arun, Harbour Park, West Sussex County Council and Littlehampton Town Council.