THE Tilbury community was treated to a feast of arts and entertainment at a festival to celebrate all that is good about the town and the Thurrock borough.

The brainchild of Theatre Is!, a group that makes theatre for and with young people, Totally Tilbury was held at the London Cruise Terminal on Saturday.

Hundreds of people turned up throughout the day to watch and join in with some superb performances by established artists, includuing Sunanda Biswas, who choreographed the tribute to the NHS phase of the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games.

There was a beat boxer, Tom Povey, who has performed with Girls Aloud star Nicola Roberts in the past. He performed alongside a classically trained violinist.

Their were also parkour sessions run by Parkour Dance Ltd, which proved extremely popular with youngsters, enabling them to learn how to “free run”.

Jade Shaw and Nyron Levy wowed the crowds with some of their gravity defying moves as they hopped, skipped and jumped up and over obstacles. Mayor of Thurrock Yash Gupta and Thurrock MP Jackie Doyle-Price attended the event and tried their hand at drumming.

There was also a performance from the Fruitfulland Voices choir And on the main-stage, the Tilbury Cottage performers told the story of Tilbury town, which celebrated its 100th anniversary earlier this year.

Braedie Atkins, 14, narrated the story of the town. Her ancestors have lived in Tilbury for its entire 100-year history.

Her great grand-father used to light the lamps in town and knew Charles Dickens when he lived in the area.

The festival, which was inspired to fightback against the Government’s well-being survey which found Thurrock to be the most “miserable” place in the country, was the culmination of four weeks of community workshops run by Jen Farrant.

The festival ended with organisers promising to be back next year.