SOUTHEND Carnival organisers are preparing for a brand new festival, ahead of the hugely popular annual parade.

Bosses behind the carnival are holding beer, gin, music, Prosecco and family events this weekend, August 9, 10, and 11 in Priory Park, and at the Royal Hotel, Southend.

On Friday, from 4pm until 11pm, there will be music and gin from the park and the Royal Hotel on the seafront will be offering Prosecco.

Friday’s headline act will be band, Longy and the Gospel Trash and Saturday’s headliner will be X Factor star Matt Linnen, from Southend.

Sunday will be a family day with music and entertainment for children. Entry to the events is £5 per person, visitors under 18 year old must be accompanied by an adult on Saturday and Sunday and children go free on the Sunday.

Garry Lowen, 61, carnival chief executive, said his team are very excited. He said: “We have held the beer festival at community centres and schools, but this is a brand new event.

“We are working with Quest Music Services and the firm is doing the production and working with the artists and management on the event.

“We are also having support from Arts Council Funding.

“It’s had a great response on Facebook with about 20,000 people engaging with it.

“We have a licence for 5,000 people on the days and we expect it to be a sell-out event this week.

“We are keeping the entry fee the same for all the events.

“There will be about 20 different ales for our visitors provided by AGH Events.

“The event will be one that everyone in the town can benefit from because it’s at different locations.”

The carnival boss said the procession, on Saturday, August 17, will be the 107th in the town. He said it’s great to be able to keep part of Southend’s history alive with the event and parade.

Mr Lowen said: “It’s one of the biggest in the south east and costs us about £18,000.

“We couldn’t do it without our sponsors including c2c, Arriva Buses, Stanbridge Security and many more.

“This year we’ve got a new addition for this year – Flagz, a big Notting Hill Carnival troupe with over 150 performers.

“We expect 30,000 visitors on the seafront and work very hard with police on security.”