The Maritime Weekend is here and fancy dress is the order of the day.

The whole of the town centre is taking part in the maritime fancy dress day and restaurants and retailers are joining in the fun too with special menus, events and offers throughout the weekend.

And tonight celebrations will shift to the Waterfront. There will be intriguing performances and acts including fire-juggling duos, operatic performances and sculptural entertainment to be revealed tonight.

Tomorrow is first full day of the Maritime weekend fand to make the event a number of historic sailing barges and yachts will be in Ipswich. There will be sailing opportunities and historical entertainment to fit with the Saxon and Viking theme.

New this year is the Beer and Beverage Festival, found in its old position on Orwell Quay. Featuring a range of local and national brewers like Greene King, Woodfords, Colchester Brewery, The Dove Street Inn, Mauldons, Wibblers, the beer festival got udnerway on Wednesday and runs until Sunday.

On Sunday you’ll find more than 20 of the region’s very best, small scale producers at the new Saints Farmers Market in St Peters Street and there will also be a World Village Market on Orwell Quay and the traditional Waterfront market on Regatta Quay during the weekend.

University Campus Suffolk hosts its annual open day tomorrow from 10am-2pm and on Sunday the Regatta programme returns with more than 60 classic yachts, smacks and working boats on Haven Marina. Activities will include a range of sculling and rowing races and the renowned Rubber Flubber football match.

Finishing the celebrations off will be firework display from the Waterfront from 9.30pm.

The Maritime Festical is part of Celebrate Ipswich, which kicked-off on Monday with a St Tropez car exhibition on the Cornhill featuring a Ferrari F1 Replica, 1973 Jaguar E-Type, a James Bond Aston Martin DB5, an Aston Martin V8 Vantage, an umber of vintage sports cars and some celebrity faces.

Other attractions have included street entertainers, circus performers and buskers; an Urban Free Style Show featuring some of the country’s leading parkour and free-running performance teams, a BMX flatlander and a breakdancer. See photos from last year’s event in our gallery, and if you are going along this weekend, share your photos at iwitness24.co.uk