YOUNGSTERS from across the North West got into the groove for Burnley's annual dance festival at the weekend.

The yearly festival held at Burnley Mechanics attracted more young competitors than ever before, with more than 850 strutting their stuff on the dance-floor. The festival started at 9am on Friday and continued until 9pm on Saturday.

Among those taking part were eight-year-old Phillippa Brierley, Olivia Fox and Alexandra Clarke, all from Burnley.

Organiser Peter Jelley, of the Burnley Festival group, said this year's event had been the best yet with youngsters taking part from across the north.

Entrants came from as far afield as Sheffield, Huddersfield and Newcastle for the two-day event. Peter said: "We had a fantastic number of people taking part and people made a huge effort to travel long distances to get here. We had 200 more than last year, so we are getting more and more popular every year.

"In fact, we had so many taking part that we had to have two judges so we could fit everyone in during the time we had.

"The standard was very high and the judges were very impressed. In fact it was probably the highest we have had so far."