The afternoon of Cosplay on Sunday April 22 included a parade and a guest appearance by manga artist, Matthew Lin, who took part in a draw off.

13-year-old Madeline Martin loves Cosplay and persuaded her friends to come along this year, dressed as characters from the TV series, Adventure Time.

“It’s great fun,” said Madeline, who wore special contact lenses to make her eyes a scary red to fit in with her character, King of the Vampires.

Gracie Spry was dressed as Yuri from the anime series, Yuri on Ice.

“The series was around two years ago, and I am obsessed with it at the moment,” she said.

Six-year-old Kayden Van Maanen loves dressing up and found it hard to pick which costume to wear.  In the end, he came as a Star Wars storm trooper, and showed off his Darth Vader backpack.

“I work for him,” he said, proudly.

Dad Simon Van Maanen was full of praise for the organisers of the Youth Week event.

“I love it.  I think there should be more things like this,” he said.

Adam Thompson looked fearsome as Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13^th.

“I’m really interested in horror,” he said.

“It started with Freddie Kruger, then Slender Man and now Jason.”

A bigger crowd than ever enjoyed the games, food, chopsticks championships and lots more and organiser, Virginia Cox from the library was delighted.

“This is the best roll-up we have had in nine years,” she said.

“It’s for young and old, and everyone is having a happy time.  We would like to thank Cosplay and the artists for joining in.”

Douglas and Marissa Gilbert brought along popular board games from Board and Dicey, people tried their hand at doodle art, and had a go at sketching manga and anime characters.