HUNDREDS of families in Blackbird Leys yesterday enjoyed a day out in the sunshine as an old tradition returned to the estate.

The first Leys Play Day for over a decade was held on the Blackbird Leys Park.

It saw more than 1,500 people enjoy circus skills, climbing walls and activities like facepainting and marshmallow-roasting.

Enjoying a spot of dancing in the sunshine were members of the Messy Jam Dance School, based in the Leys and Barton.

Teacher Ellisha Peart said: “Events like this are great. They bring everyone together and it’s just nice seeing everyone out in the sun.”

Dancer Max Webb, nine, said: “The dancing is really good and the water guns are fun.”

Mum-of-seven Helen Pledge, 46, from Merlin Road, watched as two of her daughters, Erin and Morgan McCormack, tried their hand at drumming. She said: “It is a community thing. We all know each other and the kids are safe. And that community spirit is so important.”

The event was organised by the Oxfordshire Play Association as the second in a series of six play days around the county.

Annual play days used to run on the park in Blackbird Leys in the 1990s but stopped when funding ran out.

It was reinstated by the association this summer and cost around £3,000 to stage, with money coming from grant-giving bodies and local councils.

Organiser Jane Gallagher said: “We are so delighted with the way the day has gone. We had more people than we ever could have expected for its first year.

“We hope this will now become an annual feature on the estate and get bigger and bigger.”

Eight-year-old Anna Ward, from Rose Hill, who was tackling a climbing wall, said: “I like the music bus and drawing. And I got to sit in an ambulance which was good.”

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