EVERYTHING was red, white and blue as patriotic festivities from a bygone era were re-lived at a North-East attraction at the weekend.

The bunting was dusted down to bedeck the Old Town and Colliery Village sites at Beamish Museum, near Stanley, County Durham, in a recreation of Empire Day celebrations of old.

Empire Day was an annual event and was staged for the first time in 1902 to mark the end of the Boer War, in South Africa.

It was traditionally held on May 24, the birthday of Queen Victoria, who passed away the previous year. During her lengthy reign, Britain rose as a world power, and the event was staged to encourage people, particularly children, to be aware of their duties as citizens of the British Empire.

The last Empire Day was in 1958.

But it has once again become a "hardy annual" at the open-air heritage museum, which gives a flavour of life in the North-East early in the 20th Century. Beamish's Empire Day is staged over the nearest weekend to May 24,

The Borneo Band, from Durham Army Cadet Force, performed both on Saturday and yesterday in the site's park bandstand to add a musical flavour to the celebrations, while the buildings of the cobbled street of the Old Town were festooned with Union flags and bunting.

In keeping with the flavour of empire, the Co-op shop on site featured a colourful array of produce from the colonies, including teas from India and Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, sugar cane and bananas from Jamaica and the Bahamas, plus other goods from New Zealand and Australia.

Empire Weekend has been adopted as part of 2007 Museum and Galleries month celebrating the theme, People - Who are We?

In keeping with the focus of the event, an exhibition was mounted in the Collections Study Room at Beamish Museum, reflecting the impact of the British Empire and Commonwealth on people in the North-East. It also included a display, called Around the World in 80 Objects.

A family activity trail was also staged, free of charge at the museum's entrance building.