MUSIC, dance and laughter will fill the streets today when Maindee Festival celebrates its 21st anniversary.

The theme of this year’s popular street parade is Maindee Grows Up.

Festival organiser John Hallam said: “The festival has become a local phenomenon. It’s 12 months in the planning and we are getting more people joining the parade.

“It’s a huge voluntary effort from Maindee and Newport.”

The first Maindee festival was organised by a group of people in Maindee who wanted to do something around community. Sue Bidmead was appointed as council community development worker based in Community House in Maindee in 1997 and part of her remit was to work with the community on joint initiatives in the area.

Sarah Rehman from Maindee, who now lives in Sutton in Surrey, was 11 when the first festival took place and she was a member of the youth organising committee. Although she works in London she returns to Maindee for the festival almost every year.

“I got involved accidentally,” she said. “I was involved in community newsletter that Sue was working on and we finished a meeting and myself and a friend didn’t want to go home. The festival organiser meeting was happening next door and we stayed and ended being part of committee.

“The committee has grown and you see lot of different people have joined in. You still have a core team of people who have been here from early on.”

Festival organiser John Hallam added: “We have kept going and have new young people getting involved. Monika Sluka, who got in touch a few years ago, is in charge of main stage, so it’s a way people to build confidence and experience.

“Community events like this are effective way bring people together, these days can be difficult to organise a big event like this, because there is a lot of regulations and costs, but the best thing is that we have such a good team of people who come from everywhere to take part.”

Ms Rheman added that she looks forward to the festival every year and she has loved seeing it grow from its early days.

“The highlight is that it has grown and it is something people will make effort to come and join in with,” she said. “It’s a big get together for everyone, the whole community spending a day out enjoying events and getting to know one another. It’s very much about unity and community spirit.”

For more information about the fesival visit maindee.org/festival. A full report on the festival will be online at southwalesargus.co.uk on Saturday and in Monday’s Argus.