Kirkstall Festival was fantastic this year, and we had good weather for possibly the first time this summer. I'd helped Pyramid of Arts' Youth Group make an armada of sea creatures for the parade. We joined various other groups and schools from Leeds marching through the streets of Kirkstall. Everyone’s work was fantastic, and we were particularly pleased to be given the best group prize for our underwater parade creatures.

I'd gladly volunteered to play a giant drum in the parade. I like making a lot of noise, but I didn't realise how much pain a drum can cause repeatedly hitting your legs. I now have the bruises to remind me. I was able to ignore it was the most part, but it did mean I was a bit out of time.

Our sea creature parade consisted of a giant octopus, a sea horse, various fish of previously undiscovered species and many jelly fish. The whole group had helped with the ideas, design and building of them. Kate Woodfield was the artist leading the group and did a wonderful job with this project. We also had a few samba music workshops to help us work out some music to play on the parade.

We made the creatures by first making wooden frames from withies. Withies are bendy sticks from willow trees and are fantastic for making large light frames with. We then covered them in cling film to give them a solid surface. We then covered them in tissue paper soaked in glue and paint, and finally painted on extra decoration to get them looking just right.

We were all really proud of what we'd made, and it was great to be part of that and to show it off in the parade. I'm hoping we'll make more giant things out of withies and tissue paper in the future.