GIANT smartphones, human-sized playing cards and doctors and nurses all made an appearance for this year's Wallingford Carnival.

The crowds flooded Wallingford's town centre to applaud the great number of impressive and creative floats and community groups that paraded through on Saturday.

The community turned out to pound the streets under the blazing sun on what was the hottest day of the year so far and made the most of the 'work and play' carnival theme.

Wallingford town mayor Michael Kidley said: "It was a pretty good day.

"The carnival was mainly centred around the town centre this year and there was a lot of people, it was really crowded.

"There were also more floats taking part in the carnival procession this year compared to previous years, which was great.

"It was just a very good day, the weather was good and I think I am right in saying it is the first year of a new committee and all seemed to be going very well."

The town carnival itself has been running for more than 50 years and takes place each year on the third Saturday of June.

It is entirely dependent on volunteers, who turned out in their masses to help the event run smoothly.

A number of community groups, charities and children from across the town rolled up their sleeves and got involved to make the event go off without a hitch.

The procession was lead by Mr Kidley in his role as town mayor and he was taken along in a donkey cart to head up the parade.

He added: "One of the highlights for me was the new carnival queen we had this year which was actually a man dressed up as a queen.

"It was great, he took the role by storm and the crowd loved him.

"The mayoress and I were in the donkey cart and he followed in the parade behind us – the carnival queen did a tremendous job and everyone loved him."

The procession made its way from the Rockfort Estate, along Hithercroft Road, St John's Road and to the town centre via Market Place, High Street and to the Kinecroft and back.

Elsewhere, the event hosted a number of impressive performances, from singing and dancing from groups such as the Wallingford Carnival Choir to martial arts.

Entertainment continued right into the evening for families before rounding off at about 7pm.