Thousands of people from across the North East turned out this weekend to enjoy Redcar Racecourse’s fifth Caribbean Carnival Day.

Over 4,600 racegoers attended the event, which featured seven races, fancy dress competitions, pirates and musical entertainment from the Paradise Steel Band.

The glorious summer weather added to the Caribbean atmosphere as hordes of families enjoyed carnival fun at the annual event.

Amy Fair, general manager of Redcar Racecourse, said: “It’s been a fantastic day. We’re really pleased to see such a great turnout for the event.

“We have increased our attendance figures on last year’s event and it’s great to see so many people really getting into the Caribbean feel with their costumes.”

One of the highlights of the day was the fancy dress competition for adults and children who put on their best pirate and Caribbean costumes.

The children’s fancy dress competition winner, Jamie Black age seven from Workington won a hamper basket of sweets to take home.

He said: “I feel really lucky to have won the competition and I can’t wait to dig into all these sweets and share them with my brother and cousin.

“I’m dressed up as a Neverland pirate from the film Peter Pan and my mum helped me to make my costume.”

Joanne Leach from Middlesbrough won the adult’s fancy dress competition and said that she was delighted to have won as she had worked hard to make her entire outfit.

“I entered the fancy dress competition two years ago and I was awarded third place so I’m thrilled that I have come back and finally won first place.”

The racecourse also treated four lucky racegoers to VIP treatment after winning its Facebook Pets of the Caribbean competition. The prize included a three course meal in the Voltigeur Restaurant, VIP admission badges, racecards, a bottle of wine and a luxury gift.

Caron Elise Goodwin won the competition after posting a photo of herself and her dog, Coco– who also loves to dress up -in matching pirate costumes. On the day she was asked to present the prizes to the winners of the fancy dress competitions.

She said: “I’ve had a lovely day. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the VIP treatment and the food has been delicious.

“It was really hard judging the children’s’ fancy dress competition as they had all made such a fantastic effort.”

The racecourse teamed up with local performing arts company Page2Stage to create a fun filled day for the children which included teaching them sea shanties and pirate lingo.

The remainder of the 2015 season at Redcar has two more feature racedays; the Ladies’ & Gents’ evening on Saturday 29th August, and the famous Two Year Old Trophy on Saturday 3rd October.

There are many hospitality options from the Dine & View package in the Crow’s Nest Restaurant, to racegoers’ packages including admission, a racecard, food and drink.

Parties of ten or more can also save over 20% when they book their Grandstand or Course Enclosure admission tickets in advance.

For more information about the racecourse visit http://www.redcarracing.co.uk/ or call 01642 484 068.