By Karen Coles, iNews Cayman special correspondent

A carnival celebrating Leicester’s Caribbean community and culture has celebrated its 30th anniversary. Leicester Caribbean Carnival, which was first held in 1985, has grown into one of the biggest events of its kind in the UK. This year’s theme was the Americas. It was held on Saturday 1st August and the official opening was scheduled for 12.30pm but in tradition of Caribbean time it actually started around 1pm!!!

An estimated 100,000 people lined the route of the carnival parade on Saturday as the city was transformed with floats, musicians and dancers from across the country including, London, Leeds, Birmingham etc.

Leicester is a multi-cultural City and this Carnival brings everyone together – the sights and smells were very reminiscent of the Caribbean and the sun even shone, just a little!!

We have visited the Carnival on previous occasions but this one was so well attended that people had to queue for 2 hours to gain entry to the park where the float parade ended up and were various musical bands, steel drums, numerous food stalls of course, huge fun fair etc.