A SPOOKY Halloween parade and spectacular lights festival must become annual events to attract tourists to Southend all year round, traders say.

Both residents and businesses in the city are calling for the LuminoCity and Halloween events to be locked into the calendar each year following their success in recent months.

The LuminoCity event saw more than 200,000 people visit light displays stationed across Southend in February half-term.

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The Halloween parade replaced the traditional summer carnival and saw thousands of people line the seafront for a procession featuring giant puppets and haunted floats.

Organisers have confirmed the Halloween parade will return again this year but have remained tight-lipped on whether it could become an annual event.

But Paul Thompson, owner of Pebbles One in Southend, is hopeful it will become a permanent part of the calendar.

He said: “My kids absolutely love coming down for the parade and the lights, it is exciting, and they look forward to events like that in the year.

“The first year was a great success combining that with the fireworks and LuminoCity, “It is really putting Southend on the map, and good for the latter time of the season.

“It is good for businesses too, getting visitors and tourists, it benefits the high street as well, “It is just a good thing all round for tourism and a feel-good factor.When the nights start to draw in, these events also fill the void between the summer and Christmas, which is what we need.”

Jordan Panter, 31, from Southend, went to both the Halloween and LuminoCity events with his eight-year-old daughter, Isabelle, and said it really make him feel proud of Southend.

He added: “After such a terrible year, it gave everyone something to do to take their mind off things. I will be attending the Halloween Parade again this year, and I think it would be amazing to see it become an annual thing for sure, as it’s great to see all the different aspects of our community. With both the Halloween Parade and LuminoCity, I hadn’t seen the seafront that busy in so long, it was really nice to see.”