Hundreds of people enjoyed this year's canal festival in Oxford.

The free all-day event took place at Aristotle Lane Recreation Ground in north Oxford on Saturday.

Proceeds from the festival are going to The Kilsby Boat Project, a 112-year-old narrowboat being rescued to become a new community entertainment boat for Oxford’s waterways.

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There was live music from the Jericho Singers, Ben Avison & Three Idle Women, Weekend Warriors, The Dirty Big Canal Dance Band, Mambo Panthers, Papa Nui, and Senegalese kora musician Jali Fily Cissokho.

(Image: Ed Nix) Visitors to the Spoken Word Tent listened to fantasy author Sir Philip Pullman reading on stage, and Roy MacFarlane, 'Canal Laureate', announced winning performances from this year’s poetry competition.

Northern Lights, the first instalment of Mr Pullman's classic trilogy His Dark Materials, is partly set on the Oxford Canal in Jericho.

There were also stalls selling jewellery, clothing, treats and local crafts.

(Image: Ed Nix) And there were fun activities running all day for children including face painting, art, a bouncy castle, a Canal Olympics, arts and crafts projects, and a cinema showing local history short films.

There was also a dog show at the festival and craft beers were on sale in the bar tent.

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There was also a big selection of food vendors on site offering international cuisines.

(Image: Ed Nix) The Kilsby Boat Project is rescuing and restoring a 1912 canal boat, reinventing it as a community venue for storytelling, music and boat trips.

Kilsby is moored at Tooley’s historic boatyard awaiting restoration works that will enable her to make the trip back home to Oxford.

For more information visit www.oxfordcanalfestival.com

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About the author 

Andy is the Trade and Tourism reporter for the Oxford Mail and you can sign up to his newsletters for free here. 

He joined the team more than 20 years ago and he covers community news across Oxfordshire.

His Trade and Tourism newsletter is released every Saturday morning. 

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