More than 300 local people will come together this Sunday to create Carnival by the Sea. The carnival will be globally inspired and highlights will include a squad of nine giant walkabout puppets, towering above the crowds at up to 4m high –almost as tall as a double-decker bus – and a carnival queen character called The Spirit of Courage, to be played by Bournemouth drag artist Delatrix.

As well as the giant puppets, there will be a flock of curly-beaked birds, over 75 dancers, a troupe of baby angels, 25 drummers, 100 flag bearers, two Ukrainian gymnasts, and a number of DJs and MCs from a local Afrobeat record label.

The carnival is being organised by international carnival specialists Global Grooves, which was responsible for a section of the Platinum Jubilee Pageant in London this June, and has also created spectacles at festivals all over the country.

Local cultural groups will be taking part in the parade – these include Brazilian Education and Cultural Centre, the Indian Cultural Association of Dorset and Dorset Ukrainian Community CIC.

There will also be young Indian dancers from Ekdantay Bharatnatyam Dance, a group of young asylum seekers who are studying English at Bournemouth and Poole College, recording artists from Boscombe’s Evision Music Group, and The Chatterboxes, a youth action project run by young people with disabilities aged 11-25 years, coordinated by Bournemouth’s YMCA.

GCSE art students from Glenmoor and Winton Academies have spent the week putting the finishing touches to one of the giant puppets, a tentacled sea creature, nicknamed ‘the ghost from the coast’, which is largely made from recycled materials.

The parade, which will start at Horsehoe Common at 5.15pm and arrive at the Pavilion terrace at about 6.15pm will mark the culmination of Arts by the Sea and the end of Art Month in Bournemouth.

Parade producer for Global Grooves, Freya Bennett-Nielsen, said: “We invited Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole to come out and play and hundreds of people said yes please!

“We’ve met funky drummers and incredible dancers in all styles, from Brazilian samba, to Indian classical dance and Afrobeat.

“Everywhere we have been, we have found people with a huge passion for community and carnival and we know that Sunday’s event is going to be something very special.”

Restaurant worker Gislaine Zanoveli, 55, from Branksome, Poole, and originally from Sao Paulo in Brazil, is taking part as a dancer. She said: “Carnival has such good energy and I can’t wait to take part in Carnival By the Sea. I love carnival and to me, it represents the spirit of Brazil. I have participated in carnival in Sao Paulo many times and am looking forward to being part of the carnival spirit in Bournemouth.”

Anastasia Pikalova, who moved to Bournemouth from Ukraine in 2014 and helped to found a support organisation called the Dorset Ukrainian Community CIC, is joining 55 people supported by the organisation, most of them mothers with children who are recent refugees from the war torn country.

Anastasia said: “We really appreciate the opportunity to take part in such a great event.

“We want to say thank you to the host communities around the BCP region for the warmth and hospitality they have shown, but also to remind people that the war continues and we need to stand together.

“Carnival By The Sea will allow us to share the beauty and talent of our country and its people and also to demonstrate that the Ukrainian community is active, positive and integrated into local life.”

Cultural development manager, BCP Council and Arts by the Sea festival director, Andrea Francis, said: “It’s a real privilege to work with our communities in BCP and to be able to showcase their culture through such a fantastic celebratory event.

“Arts by the Sea is all about bringing people together through extraordinary experiences and this year’s parade is going to be one of the most extraordinary events yet. We hope everyone in BCP will come down to enjoy the spectacle”.

Carnival By The Sea will set off from Horseshoe Common at 5.15pm on Sunday 2 October 2022, heading down Old Christchurch Road, onto Gervis Place, through Bournemouth Lower Gardens, ending up on the terrace at the Pavilion. The event will finish by around 6.15pm.