A BRAND new family friendly festival with a focus on fancy dress will take place in Kendal next month.

The Kendal Cosplay will take place over the course of one day, with attendees encouraged to dress up as their favourite character or hero.

The event will take place at Stricklandgate's Ruskins Bar and will include live music, magic, circus skills, dance acts, face painting and food.

Claire Griffel, organiser of the event and Kendal resident, explained that she had wanted to put on an event that 'complemented' other festivals in the town.

"I was talking to a friend, Colin McGlone, who is a cosplayer," she said. "And he said well how about cosplay and I just thought 'yes, Kendal Cosplay!'"

She said that she 'knew' about cosplay but it was not something she had been part of herself.

"I immediately thought of Kendal Comic Arts," she said. "And how they're linked but not the same."

Cosplay is a contraction of the words costume play, it is a hobby in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character.

The event will include a public vote to determine the best cosplayers, with a trophy and medals for the winners.

And Claire is collaborating with the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, with the organisers offering 10 VIP passes to this year's event as prizes.

"For this year people will see great magic," she said. "Amazing circus clown skills, they'll listen to really good music they'll be able to stand next to MJ Raw as Michael Jackson."

Next year she hopes that the festival will be a 'fuller day', possibly with two sites and with people from further afield attending. In 2020, Claire hopes it will be a two day event.

"You don't have to dress up, that's the first thing," she said. "You can simply come and enjoy the fun. The emphasis of the festival is family fun. Next year for people who might want to have a go but are a bit shy there will be workshops to look at character and who you admire, developing those characters and offering help on how to put a costume together from specialist cosplayers."

The event will take place on July 15 and starts at 2.30pm. Tickets are available from Ruskins, the Kendal Cosplay Facebook page and on the door.

Money raised at the event will support local charity Space2Create and voluntary projects in West Africa.