by Nicola Forman

The town’s high street will come to life in spectacular style as a flurry of doves launches a day of festivities.

The birds will be released at 11am to launch the Sittingbourne Spectacular, part of the Swale Festival on Saturday.

The Mayor of Swale, Cllr Adrian Crowther, and Mayoress Pamela Berry, will open the show and Sittingbourne High Street will be transformed into a fantasy world with Circo Rum Ba Ba’s Dragon Quest, which sees a smoke-breathing dragon led down the street by a Goblin Queen.

The dragon theme continues with Jelly Roller’s The Dragon – a 12ft tall, hand-cranked, musical machine which plays music and flaps its wings.

The three lovely, pastel-dressed laundresses of Zilch will be bringing their 'laundry’ to Sittingbourne and musical entertainment will come in the form of festival favourites Them Again and Medway-based band The Semantics.

Cllr Gerry Lewin (Con), Swale council’s executive portfolio holder for leisure and culture, said: “Shoppers should beware on Saturday as dragons will be roaming the streets of Sittingbourne.

“The line-up for this year’s Spectacular really is second to none with imaginative and engaging performances planned.

“From mysterious and magical to funny and creative performances, audiences both young and old will be kept entertained throughout the day.”

FLAG

Swale’s Olympic Flag will be put back together on Saturday, when the 200 recipients of the 200 pieces will return them.

The flag, which was used to celebrate the handover of the Olympic baton from Beijing to London on August 24 last year, was turned into an art project.

The pieces were posted to recipients around the borough, along with instructions about where and when to return their piece of flag.

They will be returned to artist Paula Trower during the Sittingbourne Spectacular tomorrow who will put it back together and fly the flag again.