Thousands of visitors enjoy the Southend Halloween Parade

The atmosphere was electric on Southend seafront, with thousands of people lining the road for the illuminated Halloween Parade!

Returning for its fourth year, the parade was even bigger and better, with various spooky acts and decorated floats involved.

There were bright decorated floats, dance troupes performing for the crowds and huge spooky characters towering over the seafront.

The event also ended in time for one of the brilliant free fireworks displays over the seafront.

Thousands of people came to the free event and many were visiting from outside of Southend. Car parks near the seafront quickly became full including Seaway Car Park, the Royals Shopping Centre Car Park and Tyler’s Avenue Car Park.

As with previous years, the Eastern Esplanade Car Park and Fairheads Green Car Park were closed during the parade to allow the event to take place.

Vicki Lamb was one of the people who attended the event with her family. She said: “We stood by the sea life aquarium and it was brilliant. There was a really nice atmosphere, no one being silly and lots of kids dressed up. It was really well managed and crowd controlled – well done Southend.”

Councillor Daniel Cowan said: “It was a huge success and everyone played a part it in. My thanks go to all the exceptional people who organised this event; the volunteers, stewards, the community safety team, police, drivers, entertainers, community groups, the highways team, and Veolia for the clean up after.”