The city's festival is offering nine world premieres this year

The Brighton Festival started with a children's parade and fanfare involving more than 60 schools and community groups from the south coast area.

Music by about 20 school samba bands and professional musicians was featured in the show.

Nick Dodds, festival organiser, said: "It's a great way to start, with the energy of all the young people."

'Weeks of mayhem'

He said the presence of 3,000 children and parents was "testament" to the appetite Brighton has for the event.

"The idea of the fanfare was to give it a lift," he said.

"It was to say right, the festival is off, and there are three weeks of mayhem and this is it."

This year's three-week run includes nine world premieres, five UK premieres and a range of community events, he added.

The Brighton Festival is known for attracting artistic and literary celebrities and offering the best of contemporary and classical music, world dance and theatre.