Tens of thousands of people flocked to the east coast for a "fantastic" weekend.
The return of the UK's only free beachfront festival was hailed as a great success as huge numbers soaked up the sunshine in Lowestoft.
First Light Festival 2026 attracted massive crowds on Saturday and Sunday as the multi-arts festival celebrated the first midsummer sunrise in Britain's most easterly town.
A packed programme - featuring international acts, dozens of award-winning performers, live music, DJs, poets, comedians, fashion parades, workshops, wellbeing zones, art, unique sculptures, sports, talks, science and activities for all - took centre stage across 24 stages and festival spaces.
Organised by First Light CIC, the festival was first staged in 2019.
As the temperatures rose, the sun-soaked midsummer weekend saw more than 200 performances transforming Lowestoft's South Beach, seafront, Kensington Gardens, the Upper Esplanade and promenade.
The sixth First Light Festival - with a theme celebrating the 13 Full Moons which will rise in our skies this year - started in style with the Big Bang Boogie as "a cosmic coming-together" of dance moves attracted a fine turnout.
Moon Walk - a spectacular walking parade - followed as bands, schools and community groups united with the 13 Moons on parade as well as Lowestoft's own giant puppets Sol and Spectrum.
For the first time in the festival's history, the parade along the town's seafront - featuring many youngsters and primary school children - danced its way to the main stage via the middle of the beach, where the crowds were entertained with a performance of 'Welcome the Light - Man on the Moon' which kicked off the festival.
Dozens of performances from noon to 9.30pm followed across the various stages, ahead of 10 sundown ticketed events at five venues in Lowestoft.
Record crowds then gathered once more on the shoreline early on Sunday morning as yoga, dance, music, a fish feast and the dawn of a new day was welcomed.
The entertainment continued on Sunday with music, dance and activities aplenty on the glistening sands and beachfront taking place between 10am and 4pm.
'Fantastic'
Delighted with how the weekend had gone, Genevieve Christie, CEO of First Light Festival, said: "It's been really great.
"There's been a lovely atmosphere, the weather has been great and the turnout - particularly on Saturday - was fantastic with tens of thousands of people.
"A really lovely parade opened proceedings and it made its way down the middle of the beach for the first time, which worked really well and was a great success with the Big Bang Boogie.
"It started it off in style with all the schools involved, which was really joyful."
With the weekend featuring many "wonderful" performances, Mrs Christie said "the First Word tent was rammed" for poetry and talks from acts including Georgie Jones and the Sunlight Stage's fitting finale from Seth Lakeman, one of the UK’s most celebrated folk artists.
Classical music with Sea Change: Benjamin Britten in Lowestoft on Sunday morning was hauled as "exquisite," by Mrs Christie.
She said: "It was quite spectacular in honouring Benjamin Britten as a Lowestoft composer.
"We've now got the statue (in town) and it felt really wonderful to have that performance.
"Our new zone - the vertical space teen zone - was really full of youngsters all weekend, enjoying DJ'ing and gaming with the support of The Fort in Lowestoft."
With a range of activities all having gone "really well" and positive feedback and comments from traders, who were kept busy all weekend serving up a range of different foods and drinks.
A special dawn celebration enchanted beachgoers, as Mrs Christie said the dawn programme "was absolutely amazing."
She said: "I think it was attended by more people than we've ever had before.
"As the sun rose we had people lining up along the shoreline, with many doing yoga, out paddleboarding or swimming.
"We had our very own Herring Girls - consisting of artists and locals - overseeing the fish feast, which was very special.
"Jason Singh performed Suraj on the Aurora Stage and it was fantastic as all the community turned out.
"The weather really helped and on the first day we had tens of thousands of people attending."
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