Southend-on-Sea City Council’s inaugural Window Wonderland festival (22-24 March) proved to be a hit with residents across the city.
Over 100 households and some businesses signed up for the event which saw windows of all shapes and sizes transformed into vibrant canvases adorned with creative art, colours, and lights.
As well as many households taking part, several organisations also took part including Metal arts based in Chalkwell Park, who decorated one of the large windows of their white Georgian house headquarters, and the 9th Leigh Brownie Unit who decorated St Margaret's Church in Lime Avenue, Leigh-on-Sea.
Windows on several floors of the council’s Civic Centre in Victoria Avenue were decorated by staff as was the main glass entrance to Southend’s pier featuring aquatic designs including seals and fish. The pier entrance window designs were created by the Visit Southend team using easily accessible craft materials such as coloured cellophane to create the watery effects, and black sugar paper for the silhouettes.
Mark Harvey, executive director for adults and communities at Southend-on-Sea City Council, said:
"Being the first time we have ever held the Window Wanderland festival in our city, I was delighted with the amount of homes that took part and got into the spirit of what the festival is all about – community spirit, connecting, celebrating, creating together and brightening our city's streets. For that weekend, our city really was our canvas! I can't wait until next year's festival which can only get bigger.”
A selection of photos from the Window Wanderland weekend are available on the council’s official Flickr account.