Mossley arts group to provide the grand finale to Kendal Calling

In the end, seven groups made the cut, with participants aged from six to 85.

They are Baybeat Street Band from Morecambe, Boom Dang from Barrow, Blast Furnace Street Band from Ulverston, Eden Dance and BJamba from Penrith and Kendal Dance Academy and Drum Nation from Kendal.

Global Grooves' celebratory pageant for Kendal Calling is inspired by this year’s festival theme, ‘the high seas’. In the spirit of all things swashbuckling, the parade will be made up of three main sections, and led by a nautical Carnival queen, majestically riding the waves in her horse-drawn cart.

Festival goers will be able to interact with puppets Sea Spirit, Cyclone the goat ghost from the Cumbrian coast and The Spirit of Courage, a seafaring Carnival queen, sporting a show-stopping headdress, based on a mariner’s astrolabe and trailing a 5m hand painted silk ship’s sail.

Freya said: "Global Grooves specialises in bringing together diverse community groups to create professional level Carnival experiences.

"We know that our festival partner organisations are going to bring bags of big Carnival energy to help us deliver an unforgettable high seas finale for Kendal Calling.

"And it goes without saying that creating Carnival is about so much more than the final performance. When local people get together and collaborate through the arts, they grow and form connections that can reap rewards for years to come."

Cathryn Peach-Barnes, creative director, Kendal Calling, said: "This is the largest Carnival that Kendal Calling will have staged with more artists and community members than ever before. 

"We're so excited to be a platform for such excellent talent in Cumbria and Lancashire, coordinated by phenomenal long-term collaborators Global Grooves."