A new month-long event will replace the defunct Herne Bay Festival this year, it has been announced.

Management of the festival was stripped from external organisers Continental Drifts after their contract expired last year.

It will now involve a series of events throughout August – dubbed BayFest – and will be run by voluntary community groups.

Many of the activities will be funded fully or in part by the city council, using the £35,000 previously allocated to the Herne Bay Festival.

The council’s Caroline Cooper said: “We discontinued our commissioning of the previous Herne Bay Festival due to clear resident feedback that they wanted more control of their own event.

“The funds that were previously used to pay for the festival have now been made available to the local community and it’s an incredibly impressive line-up of activities that they have put together.

“The town’s groups are very proactive and we are delighted to be supporting them."

"The town’s groups are very proactive and we are delighted to be supporting them..." - Caroline Cooper

The events will run from Saturday, August 5 to August Bank Holiday Monday, including the classic motor festival and Herne Bay Rocks.

Gideon Scott, chairman of the Herne Bay Town Partners group, has been appointed festival co-ordinator.

He said: “There will be major events every weekend with all the usual arts, crafts, music and history events and the traditional events – such as crabbing and sandcastle competitions - throughout the weeks.

“The advantage this year is that because the organisers are all volunteers, all this funding will be used to help deliver the various events.

“We have held regular meetings since January and assembled a group of representatives from all the major community and volunteer groups in town, including the BayPromoTeam and carnival association.”