TEENAGERS playing samba drums led a Notting Hill-style carnival through Portsmouth city centre to celebrate Easter.

Worshippers from city centre churches danced into Commercial Road on March 19, waving banners and streamers, as they re-enact Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the event normally celebrated on Palm Sunday.

They followed a 12-foot puppet of Jesus, while youngsters from St Luke’s School in Southsea beat out a rhythm on samba drums.

The teenagers then performed drama portraying Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection to help explain the stories of Good Friday and Easter Sunday to shoppers. The drama pieces were devised as part of their GNVQ performing arts course, in partnership with Portsmouth-based Top Cat Theatre Company and Portsmouth Music Service.

The event was the annual, open-air celebration of ‘The Easter Story’, which is organised by Churches Together in Central Portsmouth, an inter-denominational group that includes Anglican, Roman Catholic, Methodist, Salvation Army and Pentecostal churches.

The procession started at Portsmouth’s RC Cathedral, led by the giant puppet of Jesus and 12 youngsters playing samba drums. Worshippers paraded up Edinburgh Road and into Commercial Road before halting at the top of Arundel Street to watch the drama.

Neil Pugmire, artistic director of Top Cat Theatre Company, and Andrew Atkins, head of Portsmouth Music Service, have been working this term with the students at St Luke’s School to devise the samba rhythms and street theatre.

“The youngsters learnt more about the art of street theatre, and this performance was actually be part of their GNVQ exam,” said Neil. “Passers-by certainly stopped and watched, and I hope this helped them understand a bit more about what Christian celebrate at Easter.”