ABOUT 500 revellers turned out to celebrate the 60th anniversary of VE Day with a victory parade around a Hampshire village.

A handful of early risers even made it to Wickham Square for the start of May Day celebrations when traditional dancers from Wickham Morris took to the stage at first light.

Two villagers dressed as Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle took a symbolic salute before being joined for the parade by evacuee children in gas masks, entrants in wartime dress and 1940s costumes and a host of military vehicles.

After a VE Day picnic, visitors from twin town Villers sur Mer gave villagers a taste of traditional French dancing as they joined Wickham Primary School pupils who laid on a maypole dancing display.

David Roger-Jones, of Wickham Square Events, said: "Every year seems to be that bit different and that bit better. It was brilliant."