SUMMER sounds swept around the campus as thousands enjoyed the annual Kent University ArtsFest.

Residents joined students as exam pressures and were forgotten with a flurry of music and performing arts.

Bio-sciences lecturer Peter Nicholls said: “This event, more than any other, sees people from all walks of university life from students to cleaners coming together.”

There was plenty of dancing as a DJ spun tunes from the massive outdoor stage lit up by a spectacular fireworks finale.

Co-organiser Sophie Miekle said: "It was bigger than last year’s event."

Music indoors and outside included Southern Pacific and Balkan songs from the Maridadi Singers and Drummers and displays from Capoeira group, Grupo Muzenza de Capoeira.

Schools taking part included Canterbury High School performing arts students while the university’s own Battle of the Bands winner Elaine Golding and concert band and big band also took to the stage.

There was face painting for younger visitors and barbecues and a beer tent kept appetites satisfied.

In the evening a full house heard the opera gala prom concert at Eliot College while a younger, more vocal, audience cheered on Ashford band Electric River in the Gulbenkian Theatre.

Bio-sciences lecturer Peter Nicholls said: “This event, more than any other, sees people from all walks of university life from students to cleaners coming together.”