Stunning '˜Sea of Dreams' wows crowds at handmade festival

Acrobat Spyros Andreopoulos at Hebden Bridge Handmade Parade. Picture Tony Johnson.

Thousand gathered to watch Hebden Bridge’s annual Handmade Parade, which celebrates the art of the handmade, funkiness - and just having fun.

Guest artists from Greece amazed with their acrobatics, there were around 35 stilt walkers and a bigger than ever samba band, spruced up with seaweed for this year’s theme, Sea of Dreams.

There were big and even bigger figures in striped Victorian bathing suits, a lighthouse, hard-hat diver and huge fish with bulbous eyes. Giant seahorses looked stunning against the backdrop of Hebden’s Old Bridge.

Hebden Bridge Handmade Parade. Picture Tony Johnson.

The giant puppets were made by professional artists and colourful costumes and community art at open workshops, which run over three weeks, by hundreds of participants.

The parade - which has two rules: no written words or logos and no motorised vehicles - was started in 2008 by puppeteer Andrew Kim who said at the time: “This area is bursting at the seams with creative people hungry to make art together; we simply provided an opportunity.”