A FREE festival brought more than 3,000 people to Colchester to celebrate diversity.

The Rice and Spice Festival, which is an annual event, took place at the Firstsite gallery.

The event is built around the theme of rice and spice and aims to promote diversity and equality.

The festival represented a wide range of groups from Bangladeshi,  Caribbean, Chinese and Eastern European, to Indonesian, Indian, refugees and migrant workers, and many more.

The programme gave platform to all communities in town to showcase their heritage through food, dance, music performances and visual arts.

People of all ages had the chance to enjoy food workshops and prepare international dishes, with Sri Lankans being one of the many groups to to cook traditional food for visitors.

Part of the entertainment included a performance from Your Steel Pans as well as a number of activities like origami and calligraphy.

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Poobie Naidoo, joint co-ordinator of the event, has thanked the Essex Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, Colchester Council and Essex Council for sponsoring the event.

He added: “We had superb dancing and costumes.

“We had a lot of spontaneous entertainers come up and ask ‘Can I sing this song’?

“It was lovely seeing them being involved.”