THE September sun shone on thousands of people who visited Saltaire over the weekend for the final days of its annual festival.

Unlike the opening weekend of the festival, where visitors were first pummelled with rain before the sun came out, Saturday started with warm weather from the get go, and the weather resulted in the World Heritage Site filling up with people from all walks of life.

Venues throughout the village were hosting events, but the busiest was Roberts Park, where by midday thousands of people had pitched a spot in the park to enjoy the bands performing on the main stage and sample the different food and drink on offer.

Market stalls in both the park and on exhibition road were heaving, while charity stalls on the grounds of the United Reformed Church, which had opened to the public for the weekend, also drew big crowds.

The festival started on Friday, September11, and since then the village has seen buskers performing on barges, art works in people's gardens, puppeteers wandering the village, family events, dance performances and bandstand concerts.

This weekend saw two days of free music in the park, ranging from folk ditties to singalong rock anthems that had the crowds dancing, whatever their age.

Families enjoyed sampling food as varied as fish finger sandwiches to dishes from local curry house Aagrah.

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There was a funfair next to Titus Salt School, and this led to many more people travelling on the Shipley Glen Tramway than normal. To mark the festival the Victorian tramway had invited musicians to ride along with visitors, serenading them with music, from electronic to acoustic, specially written for the short tram journeys.

Baildon musician Gus Bousfield said: "Everyone involved has been creating improvised pieces of music, and once an hour they are playing it to people travelling on the tramway. It is all inspired by the tramway, and the idea is that we are going to create an album out of this music, with all proceeds going towards the upkeep of the tramway."

John Pitcher, one of the trustees of the tramway, said hundreds of people had enjoyed the tram rides on the Saturday, adding: "It has been a very sunny day. A lot of people have come to Saltaire for the fairground and the festival. A lot of people I've been talking to today have never been on the tram before."

Shipley Fire Station hosted an open day to tie in with the festival, and as well as raising money for The Firefighters Charity, the crews were offering activities for children and safety advice for adults, including a chip pan fire display.

Station manager John Needham said: "We're doing this in partnership with the festival, it is a great opportunity to open our doors. We're promoting the fire safety message and letting people know they can have free home safety checks. The advice we are giving seems to be being embraced by the general public."

Smaller businesses in the village were also making the most of the festival - The Edward Street Bakery held an Edward Street Jamboree, selling their baked goods with Shipley coffee roasters Casa Espresso offering brews to visitors.