The Dickens Festival returns to Rochester this weekend for the 35th year running.

The event attracts thousands of visitors from all over the world as the High Street is filled with colourful characters, music, theatre and more.

One man who has been at the centre of it all for the last 35 years is Ashley Davis who helped get the festival off the ground.

Back in 1978, Medway Council or Rochester upon Medway as it was then, decided it wanted to launch an event that would boost the area’s ailing economy.

There wasn’t a fully fledged tourism department then and it was down to Robin Liddell, the manager of Chatham’s Central Theatre, to came up with the idea of using Medway’s connections with Dickens.

It was decided to stage the musical Oliver! at the former Chatham Town Hall, now the Brook Theatre, and out of that emerged a new drama group — the New Phoenix Players.

Ashley Davis, 64, a group member, said: “The idea was we hired the costumes for the show in the evening and then used them during the days to parade in Rochester for the festival.

“The first year we really did not know how it would go, but by the second year the word had got around and we were swamped.”

The Pickwick Express, which took festival revellers from Rochester railway station to Victoria, where a party was held on the platform, proved an instant success with coverage from national newspapers and television film crews.

The two-day event, always held over the first weekend in June, stretched to three days and grew into a Dickensian extravaganza with costumed characters flocking to the town centre.

The programme has expanded year on year to include Victorian fancy dress competitions, a traditional fun fair, street entertainers, a grand ball, dramas and readings all based on Rochester’s most famous son.

Ashley, who went on to run Rochester visitor information centre, said: “I have met friends from all the world through the festival.”

Ashley believes the secret to the festival’s success is maintaining the same theme, but tweaking it slightly each year.

He said: “If you like Cadbury’s chocolates, you don’t want any other kind. The catchword here is ‘Dickens’ and Dickens is popular worldwide.”

He added: “The Dickens Festival was launched to help business flourish, and it’s certainly done that. There are hardly any empty shops in Rochester.

“Will it be around in another 35 years? I firmly believe it will.

• For a full preview, see What's On, free with the Medway Messenger today