OLYMPIC TORCH 5.25pm: Multi-cultural feel as St Leonards gets ready to welcome the Olympic torch

The festival, which began at midday, has been a cornucopia of colour with a coming together of different nationalisties. The festival features Russian children singing traditional tunes, youngsters making paper Olympic torches and a tie-in with the Sierra Leone friendship link. There was also a demonstration of activities from the Hastings & Rother Special Olympics group.

Sylvia Bennett from the Gensing St Leonards Forum which organised the festival, said that they had organised the festival to tie in with the arrival of the torch relay through St Leonards. As a result, it had attracted a lot of people.

“It’s been absolutely brilliant, the best one so far,” she said. “It’s been wonderful to see all these different nationalities coming out. It has been fantastic.”

Crowds were gathering to welcome the first of the runners at around 6.30pm. Among them was Nina Honing, a language student from Cologne, Germany.

“We are waiting for the torch to arrive. We took afternoon off to see the torch,” she said.

Hastings & Rother Special Olympics demonstrations at festival.