In pictures: Guinea-Bissau carnival

Guinea-Bissau has put on a grand show for this year's carnival with thousands of people coming from all over the tiny West African country to participate and show off their talents.

Crowds run along the streets of the capital, Bissau, as carnival floats and live bands wind their way through the city streets.

The four-day pre-Lent celebrations and parades are a chance for music, dance and culture of the country's different ethnic groups to be shown off.

Here participants perform to a panel of judges in front of the city's cathedral. Competition is fierce to win the dance, music, theatre, costume and masquerade categories.

Onlookers do anything they can to get a good view of the dance competition, including scaling trees in the town centre.

Men from Bubaque, an island off the coast, play instruments including a long drum, usually used during male rituals, and a cow horn pipe.

Independence hero Amilcar Cabral is one of the many figures to feature in the masquerade parade. Children use mud, sticks, paper, glue and paint to make the masques.

Cowrie shells and bells make up part of the exotic hairstyles on display during the carnival celebrations.

Palm oil rubbed into the skin gives this young girl her red glow as she parades in front of the judges.

The festival also attracts performers from neighbouring countries. Here popular Senegalese singer, Pierre N'Diaye, sings to crowds as they drive through Bissau's dusty streets.

A drummer finds a wheelbarrow a perfect place to sit while playing. When the crowd moves on, he can easily take his drums with him. Words and photos: Rose Skelton.

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