CREATIVE students are hoping to put their own stamp on one of the county’s biggest street parades this summer.

Students from Oxford Brookes University came together last Friday to dream up new ideas for July’s Cowley Road Carnival.

It comes after the university was named as one of the festival’s lead sponsors for the festival, which is being organised by group Cowley Road Works.

Associate lecturer at the university’s department of planning Emma Wragg said: “The course is skills-based and it’s been wonderful to have a live project on which to learn.

“Our students have come up with some really creative and inspiring ideas.”

A group from the university’s Built Environment foundation programme were tasked with thinking of ways to contribute to the outdoor event.

They came up with a host of ideas including having shared food and tables to bring the community together, as well as having lanyards containing carnival information.

Student Greg Horwood said: “We’d have a big seating area down side streets and invite different youth groups and artists to paint the benches a couple of weeks before using their culture as inspiration.”

More than £54,000 has been raised towards the £120,000 needed to hold the one-day festival in East Oxford on Sunday, July 5.

The Ultimate Picture Palace, in Jeune Street, is set to host a fundraiser tomorrow to help raise cash, with a special screening of cult film This is Spinal Tap, followed by an acoustic set from five-piece rock band Balloon Ascents.

See uppcinema.com/film/this-is-spinal-tap-balloon-ascents.