Brilliant moments from Lafrowda – the UK’s first and last festival

The weather forecast can be a cause for concern, but the community was shining on St Just for Lafrowda on Saturday 20 July. The country’s first and last community arts festival, Lafrowda has been a highlight of the West Cornwall calendar for the past 26 years.

After a two-week program of activities and events, the annual St Just festival culminated in the city’s favorite day of the year. The Lafrowda Festival theme for 2024 was ‘Going Underground’, which inspired womble outfits, miners, dinosaurs and ravers with a giant ghetto blaster.

Pronounced “La-fr-oh-da”, the Lafrowda Festival takes its name from the ancient one for the St Just area. Costing around £50,000 to run each year, the festival is funded by local authority grants, advertising and sponsorship, stall contributions, donations and street collections.

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With heavy showers initially forecast for much of the day, there was some initial concern about the processions featuring giant structures made by community members and local schoolchildren. However, the hard work of the organizers and volunteers was rewarded by the weather gods, the rain parting in time for the Children’s Procession at noon and staying dry for the Community Procession at 3.30pm.

Here are 22 pictures from the lunchtime procession – click the Next button at the bottom of the page to see them all.