THOUSANDS of people braved the indifferent weather and turned out for the spectacular finale to the Evesham River Festival at the weekend.

Visitors from across the region mingled with local people to cheer on the glittering cruisers and narrowboats which cruised up and down the River Avon in the illuminated boat parade which was followed by a fireworks extravaganza.

"Possibly the best yet," was the view of organiser Hazel Hanlon at the presentation of awards on Sunday morning.

The unpredictable weather appeared to have deterred visitors during Saturday afternoon, but by the evening the numbers had swelled with spectators lining both banks of the river and three or four deep on Workman Bridge.

The festival began with the judging of the best-dressed and best themed boats - this year's theme was sci-fi.

The award for best dressed boat went to Large G & T while the prize for best themed cruiser was shared by Challenger Deep, rigged up as Ghostbusters, and Onze Droom as the Starship Enterprise. The runner-up was Coral Reef as Star Wars, and in third place was River Lark as Dr Who. The best dressed narrowboat was won by Pol-Lee-B with River Mist as runner-up and the themed narrowboat contest was a triumph for Mark Williams and his Dr Who crew on Our Bubble.

The Under-20ft class was won by the electric canoe Silent Explorer, while Boat out of Hell, skippered by Ramsay Evans won the 20-30ft award and the winning narrowboatd was Millie, skippered by John Thomsett.

The prizes in the illuminated parade were: Unthemed: 1. Moffy V, skippered by Mr Vernon, 2. Omega, skippered by Steven Brown and 3. Sandy, captained by Paul Hanlon.

The Lit Cruiser awards went to Coral Reef, skippered by Greg Hill (Star Wars) with Donnie D, skippered by Greg Hill (Star Wars) as runner-up.

The Narrowboat category was won by Our Bubbles (Dr Who) skippered by Mark Williams and Bewdley Jester, skippered by Mel Anger (Rocket).

The best overall cruiser award went to Huggy (Roget Hewitt) and best narrowboat to Hypoxia (David Robinson).

The prizes were presented on Sunday by the Mayor of Evesham, Cllr Jo Sandalls, who was accompanied by her consort, Cllr Robert Raphael. Cllr Sandalls thanked everyone who had taken part in the festival and offered a special vote of thanks to festival organiser Hazel Hanlon.