Sheerness Seaside Festival got off to a rockin’ good start on Saturday with a day of free music in the town centre.

Crowds gathered in Broadway, which was closed to traffic, on Saturday (Aug 12), to listen to some of Sheppey’s top talent.

Closing the show was guitarist singer songwriter Dan Sheehan who flew in from the USA to begin his UK tour.

The six-hour session of non-stop entertainment on the specially created “pet shop stage” kicked off at 10am with members of Minster Music Monday Club which meets once a month at Minster Working Men’s Club.

Popular busking duo Ban Jovi, comprising Steve Harding and Geof Reed, followed and then made way for solo singer Katherine Preston who also performed at the Beach Bar, Minster, in the evening.

Becki Breiner’s award-winning Song Signers proved a hit with the crowd and especially Swale’s mayor Cllr Sarah Stephen who made a special trip to the Island to watch the group perform pop songs while using sign language.

But it was Island band Lookin’ Back who stole the show with an hour’s set of good old rock ‘n’ roll classics like Johnny B Goode before going on to perform at the Rotary Club’s Beer Festival at the Aviator.

They even had members of the Sheppey carnival court up dancing with “air guitars”.

Organiser John Nurden, who provided the PA, said: “I am so grateful to all the performers who took part and the many shoppers who stopped to watch.

“Some even ended up dancing in the street. We were also so lucky with the weather, proving once again that we are on the sun-kissed Isle of Sheppey.”

He also praised Alec Smith of Cuddles ‘n’ Bubbles pet shop for providing the power, Eastchurch Aviation Museum for lending its double-size gazebo, Carlos Christian of Smith’s Funfair, the Island’s event marshalling unit and Tracy Topsom from radio station BRfm who compered the show.

“We couldn’t have done it without any of them,” he said.

The event was organised by Sheerness Town Team volunteers and launched the second week-long Sheerness Seaside Festival.

It continued with the annual Sunset Seaside Stroll from The Leas at Minster to Queenborough in the evening in aid of Cancer Research UK.

Sheppey Sea Cadets are to open up their state-of-the-art ship simulator to the public today (Monday) – and again this Thursday - and there are donkey rides in Beachfields by the sandpit tomorrow (Tuesday).

Wednesday features a School For Spies at the Criterion Theatre, Blue Town, clay-making on the prom at Sheerness in the morning and five beach cleans along the coast in the afternoon.

There will be seaside poetry at the Rumour bistro in Sheerness High Street on Thursday from 7pm.

Friday will feature free Punch and Judy shows near the town’s swimming pool from 11am to 4pm and T-shirt designing by Big Fish Art.

The TV documentary A Disaster Waiting To Happen, about the wreck of the American bomb ship SS Richard Montgomery which sank off Sheerness packed with explosives during the Second World War, gets a special showing at the Sheppey Little Theatre at 7.30pm. Tickets are £5.

The week culminates with the Sheerness Seaside Carnival on Saturday (Aug 19). Floats and entrants should gather in New Road, Sheerness, ready for the 4pm start. The route will include Millennium Way, Trinity Road, Alma Road, Cavour Road, Invicta Road and the High Street. Broadway will be closed for stalls and children’s fairground rides in the afternoon.

Once again, Tommy Holland has organised an action-packed funfair at Beachfields for the carnival weekend and will provide free fireworks on the beach on Saturday night.