LOUD music, garish make-up, erratic dancing. Once again the annual May revel which is the Sweeps Festival, entertained crowds in Rochester over the holiday weekend.

There was Morris dancing, folk music, plenty of real ale and lots of good humour.

Although it started as a celebration for the sooty lads who, years ago kept the chimneys of the rich clean, these days the Sweeps is predominantly a folk festival.

Morris men and women in floral hats, with jingling bells on their legs and scary face paint, travelled from all over the country to what has become the first major festival of the season.

For the first time, Rochester Corn Exchange was the venue for the professional concerts.

And if anyone wanted to make their own music, a stall market in the Queen’s Hall sold everything from squeeze boxes to a fine violin cello.

Medway Council’s events manager Carl Madjitey said: “We have got the basic format of the festival right but it keeps evolving. More professional acts are taking part, and in future I think the Sweeps could become an international folk dance festival, instead of just Morris dancing.”

Photographs of the event are in Monday's edition of the Medway Messenger and more will appear in this coming Friday's edition of the newspaper.