If you are a Teessider of a certain generation, these pictures will be very familiar. The venue is Stewart Park, Middlesbrough, and the numbers of kids who took part was huge.

Back in the day, an annual country dancing event was held for school children across the area. They'd travel to the Marton park to take part in a mass dance after no doubt learning the steps to the sound of a piano or a record player in the school hall or out in the playground.

The usual order of the day was to pair up with a partner and practice to ensure you knew which way to turn as the music played on.

The mass participation event seems to have been held every year up until roughly the mid 70s. These pictures, from the Evening Gazette archive, were taken in 1972 and 1973. It looks like loud speakers were

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