21/07/2008 07:00:00
The world famous Tall Ships Festival in Liverpool will end in a parade today as the 60 vessels taking part in the event begin a five-week race.
The ships, which have been docked at Liverpool since last Friday, have been visited by an estimated 500,000 people, the BBC reports.
Vessels participating at the festival, held at Wellington and Sandon docks in Merseyside, come from over 18 countries, including Brazil, Poland and Oman.
Today's closing parade, dubbed the Parade of Sail, will be led by a Royal Navy frigate, the HMS Argyll, and will start at Otterspool Promenade in south Liverpool.
On Wednesday, the five-week race will begin off the coast of Northern Ireland. The first leg of the contest will take the ships to Maloy in Norway. The ships will then sail for Bergen, also in Norway, before the second leg of the race takes them to Den Helder in the Netherlands.
According to the Liverpool Echo, Liverpool council leader Warren Bradley, said: "This will probably be one of the biggest weekends in Liverpool's history. It's bigger than the Matthew Street Festival has ever been.
"The water is the heart of our great city."
The Matthew Street Festival is music festival that is held across Liverpool annually on the August Bank Holiday weekend.
Liverpool has been awash with festivities since January as the city plays out its year as European Capital of Culture.
In April, a survey revealed that two million people had attended at least one cultural event in the city between January and March 2008 - a 30 per cent rise on the previous year's figures.