The First Light Festival delighted crowds as it made its long-awaited return to Lowestoft's South Beach on Saturday.

Unlike the 2019 festival, the day wasn't blessed with glorious sunshine throughout, but the intermittent showers didn't keep crowds away.

Thousands of visitors descended on the town for the 24 -hour long festival, with more than 100 events and activities taking place from live music to art classes.

Festival director Genevieve Christie said: "It is brilliant to be back.

"The main Sunlight Stage has been fantastic with a lot of great acts and the beach club has been packed non-stop. People seem to be really enjoying the DJs.

"There has been a lot of dancing and people getting involved, which is always great to see.

"It's all happening."

The 2019 festival attracted around 30,000 people to Lowestoft over the weekend and, despite the weather, this year's festival drew crowds from across the country once again.

Ms Christie said: "There have been a lot of people on the beach this weekend, as many as in 2019, if not more.

"There's a huge amount of families from all over the place, and a lot of people camping despite the weather.

"This is so great for Lowestoft.

"People have said to us they didn't realise Lowestoft's beach was this nice, or they wanted to visit for the first time, and that is what we wanted, for people to recognise all of the great things this town has to offer here."

While some of the events had to be shut down due to overnight storms, the festival had resumed its programme by Sunday morning.

Saturday also also saw the reopening of East Point Pavilion after a major refurbishment by First Light CIC.

The new food hall includes Black Dog Pizza, Oishii Kitchen and Tres Hermanas, as well as a bar run by Sir Toby's Beers.

Ms Christie said: "It is wonderful to have the pavilion open again.

"A lot of people have been really interested to go in and see what is happening there."