A PIRATE ship and its crew moored by Swanage Pier for a new event in the town.

Hosted by the Swanage Pier Trust, the first Purbeck Pirate Festival saw around 18,000 people visit the event which ran from Friday, July 29 to Sunday, July 31.

The frigate Shtandart, which was docked in the last year to be used for filming, which is an exact replica of a replica of the Russian naval ship commissioned and sailed by Tzar Peter the Great.

It was open for the public to board and take a look around, as well as looking at stalls, people dressed as pirates and re-enactments.

Louise Stewart from Swanage Pier Trust said: "It was amazing. We were overwhelmed with the public's response to the first event with 18,000 people having visited since Friday morning.

"We had a kids' disco on Friday night, magic shows with Kevin Burke on all three days who made balloons and provided entertainment, story time with Swanage Library and music from the shanty singers, Kelp, and The Salts in the amphitheatre.

"We thought that some people would come to the event because it was also Swanage Carnival but they have come from across the south west area to see the tall ship."

Louise said that there were also re-enactments which involved canon fire at sea and saw members of Wimborne Militia go to battle with pirates.

"We had Jack Sparrow entertaining people and Extreme Cello performing on the pier, who are doing a tour of the 57 remaining piers in the UK.

"The response from the public was amazing and people were saying that it was a great family fun event, which was nice to hear.

"People loved the ship. The queue to get on it was solid from the moment the festival opened on Friday morning.

"We also had so many families and visitors dress up as pirates. We were so pleased by how many shopkeepers dressed their windows for the pirate festival and lots of staff from the shops dressed up. The whole town has really got involved."

Swanage Pier Trust are running an appeal to raise funds to support the preservation and regeneration of the pier. A total of £805,800 has been provisionally allocated by the Heritage Lottery Fund, but Swanage Pier Trust needs to raise an additional £900,000 to secure the Pier’s future.