THOUSANDS of people have attended a town's first literature festival - and it has turned out to be a week packed with creativity and fun for the family.

The Blackburn Children’s Reading Festival kicked off on Tuesday and has provided reading fun for schools and the community.

Part of the festival has been dedicated to school visits, while the last day of the festival on Saturday was a free family-fun day.

Tuesday saw an evening session for parents, teachers and anybody working within education.

The evening gave parents an insight into what the children would experience throughout the rest of the week, and gave those in attendance the chance to meet the authors, poets and artists.

On the Wednesday and Thursdays, schools across East Lancashire attended readings at various venues around Blackburn, including Blackburn Cathedral, The Mall and the market.

While on Saturday, the families and communities day, saw everyone invited to join with the fun.

There were live readings, competitions, raffles and plenty of fun.

Children’s Reading Festivals are the brainchild of Blackburn-born author Christina Gabbitas and she hailed the event as a success, with more than 4,000 children attending during the course of it.

She said: "The event has gone fantastically well.

"There were 4,000 children over the course of the week and around 700 people on Saturday.

"The event has been highly successful and absolutely amazing to be a part of.

"The interest from people in Blackburn has been fantastic and it's surpassed all expectations.

"It's been very positive."

She added: "This is an exciting event for the town and will be returning to the town again next year.

"It will be good to have this as an annual event that is part of Blackburn's calendar."