MIDDLEWICH Folk and Boat Festival proved to be a huge success as crowds flocked from all over to enjoy a weekend of the town’s famous festivities.

The festival was kicked off with a bang on Friday night when more than 500 people crammed on the field in front of the main stage on Civic Way to see performances from Hounami and Hat Fitz and Cara before the headline The Bad Shepherds, fronted by Bottom star Ade Edmondson wowed the town.

Ade took the opportunity to pay tribute to his long standing comedy partner Rik Mayall and joked about the pictures of him in the news, in his first gig since Mayall’s death.

Dave Thompson, Middlewich town council events manager and organiser of the festival, said: “The band was amazing and Ade was back to his old self in good spirits.

“The weekend was fantastic from start to finish, there was a huge volume of people around and the feedback from everyone has been one of the best so far.”

“I’d like to thank the volunteers for the work they put in because without them we simply couldn’t have done it.”

Saturday saw the sun shining for the Middlewich Rose Fete parade and the crowning of the new Rose Queen and her retinue.

Poppy Maskill was crowned Rose Queen with Amy Singleton, Festival Queen, Jodi Walton, Community Queen, Chloe Court, Fairy Queen, Victoria Walton, Rose Princess, Harry Cromar, Rose Prince, and Aymi Tench, Rosebud.

Among the headline acts on Saturday and Sunday was The Men They Couldn’t Hang, and the popular overseas Brian Morcambe Band who were brought over from Brittany for the festival.

As well as the live performances, the festival held a floating market on the canal as well as the annual competition for the best dressed boat, which this year went to Sweden, owned by Colin Bowles.

Dave Thompson added: “Colin has been a huge supporter of the festival for many years and Sweden is an old Middlewich boat so it brings a bit of community history back into Middlewich and I’m delighted it won the award.”

The festival’s fringe venues also enjoyed a good weekend with many saying it was one of the busiest yet.

Liz McGuiness, owner of the Boars Head, said: “Last year was really good and I didn’t think we could get busier than that but this year was even better.”

“I haven’t slept much over the weekend but it was great and everybody really enjoyed it.”

The only hiccup of the weekend came on Friday morning when a narrow boat sunk in one of the locks along the canal in the town.

Get this week's Guardian for plenty more pictures of the festival.