Thousands of people descended on a Black Country town for the first day of a popular annual boating festival which is celebrating its 23rd anniversary.

More than 100 narrowboats were on show along the canal at Windmill End, in Netherton, today.

Entertainment was provided by the West Midlands Fire Service Band together with trade and charity stalls and children’s entertainment.

People from across the entire country traditionally travel to the event, which will continue tomorrow.

Last year more than 10,000 people passed through the gates over the two days.

Organisers said that although the ground was very wet they were delighted the event had been able to go ahead as planned.

Paddy Grice, one of the organisers, said: “We feel quite lucky as we know of a lot of other events which have had to be cancelled because of the weather.”

The annual festival celebrates the history of the area’s waterways.

Many of the boats were opened to the public to browse around and take a look at how people who worked on the region’s canals used to live.

People also took the chance to pick up a bargain with many of the narrowboats docked for the event also selling goods, such as crafts.

Mr Grice said a total of 97 narrowboats had pre-booked moorings prior to the festival and a further five had indicated their intention to turn up over the last few days.

However he said it had been feared some of the narrowboats would be unable to make it to the festival because of a collapse in part of the Stourbridge Canal.

Mr Grice said: “As always we have had a lot of bookings and interest but we fear the number of narrowboats could be slightly down on previous years because of the problems with the Stourbridge Canal.”

But organisers are still hoping to repeat the success of the previous years.