A creative wellbeing weekend, a live play followed by an ABBA singalong and a punk night were among the final events for this year’s highly successful Brightlingsea WinterFest.

The annual festival, which runs throughout February in venues across the town, ended on a high, having offered more than 40 attractions to banish the winter blues and boost community spirit.

The theme for this year’s festival was The Next Wave, marking the fact that WinterFest, which started out in 2015, has now entered it second decade. It was founded by Alix Sheppard and Dave Griffiths and is run entirely by a team of volunteers.

Alix said: “We are delighted that our 11th WinterFest has been the best yet. It’s been a wonderful month of music, creative arts, performing arts, wellbeing, literature, quizzes, comedy and everything in between.

“With new volunteer crew members getting involved and many original crew working hard too, we have enjoyed a whole month of bringing people together, to try new activities and chase away the winter blues. It’s amazing to be part of such a dedicated team who give so much for the benefit of the whole community.

“We would like to thank all who have supported WinterFest, the venues who have hosted us, the artists, musicians, creatives, wellbeing practitioners, bakers, quizzers, gamers, writers, comedians, actors and Brightlingsea’s wonderful community who turned out in their hundreds, during the wettest coldest February on record.”

WinterFest co-founder Dave Griffiths said: “It is always humbling to see how many people are prepared to come and support WinterFest and we are pleased to have had such positive feedback from them. Most of our events are free and when people do generously give donations they know that it will go back into the community, through WinterFest’s Wellbeing Fund, which helps local people with their mental, physical and social wellbeing.”