RADCLIFFE Carnival’s 50th anniversary celebrations kicked off in style today with the annual town centre parade.

Crowds lined the streets along the parade route to get a glimpse of the carnival, which has adopted a retro ‘Back in Time’ theme for its milestone year.

The parade was able to travel down the newly re-opened Church Street West, with roadworks in place since last July for major sewer works finally removed yesterday.

Ivan Lewis, MP for Bury South, was among those collecting charity donations along the parade route and said: “The carnival is a fantastic family fun day.

“This is my 18th carnival and the turnout today for the 50th anniversary is one of the best I have seen.

“The atmosphere created by the crowds has been wonderful and we hardly saw any gaps along the entire route.

“Today has been a great credit to the carnival committee and the people of Radcliffe.

“All of this is organised by a group of incredibly hard-working volunteers, led by Andrew Clarkson, and we should pay tribute to everyone involved in this wonderful event.”

Radcliffe Carnival continues tomorrow with more events on Red Bank Field, including the Tower FM roadshow and a car boot sale.