A DRAMATIC firework display will light up the skies above Southampton tonight when the city's latest superliner, the 83,000-ton Arcadia, is named.

Athens Olympics double gold medal athlete Dame Kelly Holmes will send the traditional bottle of champagne crashing against the ship's white hull when she performs the naming ceremony in the Western Docks.

Members of the public have been invited along to Mayflower Park to watch the event relayed live on a specially-built giant screen and to have a grandstand view of the ceremony's firework finale.

Entrance to Mayflower Park on the waterfront is free and the screen broadcast is due to begin at 7.30pm and the ceremony is expected to finish at about 9pm.

Arcadia, the largest cruise ship ever built exclusively for British passengers, arrived in Southampton for the first time last Wednesday and since then the ship has hosted thousands of visitors while the vessel has been alongside the Mayflower Terminal.

About 1,000 official guests of the ship's owners, P&O Cruises, have been invited to the naming celebrations that will also include a gala dinner and entertainment on board Arcadia, which was built in Italy.

Arcadia, which can accommodate 1,952 passengers and has 976 cabins, is scheduled to leave on her maiden voyage, a 16-night cruise to the Mediterranean, on Thursday.

The ship is the fifth of P&O Cruises' vessels to become part of the company's Southampton based fleet that also includes Oriana, Aurora, Oceana and later this year, Artemis.

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