This year the St Leonards Festival will introduce yet another vibrant taste of Caribbean Style Carnival with steel pans and beautiful costumes on loan from Notting Hill; including Orchid Queen and Diwali Mosaic King. The sheer spectacle of these fantastic costumes, along with the rhythmic beat of the drums will make you want to join in with the dancing.
Local school children and family groups have been participating in workshops to learn the music and dance and to make costumes for this carnival extravaganza.
On Warrior Square Gardens (D on the map) for all music and arts lovers we have a wide and varied programme ranging from traditional music to opera. Not to be missed and appearing for the first time in England Ouzouri Wa M’ttroumche from Mayotte (near Madagascar) who will perform their traditional cultural music, dance and body art techniques.
The very popular Sujata Banerjee Dance Co will also be performing again this year. As part of their performance they will be working with our own local Malayalee Community.
Afternoon performances will include local covers band No Exit; the talented Jasmine Allen a young lady with a beautiful voice and the amazing Swingin’ Elvises, followed by the popular local band The Kytes setting the mood for the headline act The Real Thing. To finish off a fantastic day everyone will once again have an opportunity to see The Swingin’ Elvises finale.

For the younger visitors there is an exciting programme in the Children’s Marquee (C on the map), for older children sports, skate boarding and Sumo wrestling, along with an eclectic mix of local bands, building towards our headline act The Real Thing.

There is also a wonderful international market in the colourfully decorated Kings Road as well as street theatre entertainment, a community stage and various food stalls. Not to be missed is the Steel Pan Carnival procession around Warrior Square Gardens at 3pm.

The festival international market will open at 11 am in the newly revamped Kings Road with its new wide paving and road surface. Sambalanco will drum their way down Kings Road setting the mood for a day of shopping, street entertainment; music and dance.

Here shoppers will have a wide selection of stalls to browse and sample food from around the world. The dancers among you can join the Tea Dance that will take place on the Forum community stage at Warrior Square Station forecourt at 2.30pm (A on the map), in addition music, comedy and poetry lovers will be entertained by local groups and individuals from 12 noon to 5 pm.