GRAYS town centre is due to come alive this weekend for the town’s annual street festival.

The festival will be taking over the High Street between noon and 4pm on Saturday – coinciding with an open day at South Essex College’s new £45million new college site.

X Factor boy band Kingsland Road will entertain visitors to the college, while the Thurrock International Celebration of Culture will offer a plethora of artists performing as part of the street festival.

It will be opened by the Grand Theatre of Lemmings, proud owner of the smallest theatre in the world contained in a motorbike and sidecar.

The Asian Association Dance Troupe will be performing on the stage outside HSBC bank, followed by Palmer’s College-based theatre group T3G.

Creative Blast, Golden Voices and the Mad Professors are also on the bill.

Festival organiser Jen Farrant, a former Palmer’s College teacher, said: “This is a great opportunity to promote all that’s good about Grays, to get people into the town, get people shopping in the town and show what we have in Grays and in Thurrock.

“The Thurrock International Celebration of Culture was set up in 2011 to celebrate the diversity of Thurrock and bring it to the wider community.”

Work on the South Essex College building only finished last week,so Saturday’s event will be the first chance local people will have had to look around.

As a bonus, fans of Kingsland Road can see them in the college’s new amphitheatre at 3.15pm.

The open day will also feature a wide range of musical and dance performances and educational demos by the college’s department, with free goodie bags on offer, too.

Thurrock Gazette:

The Grand Theatre of Lemmings