BELFAST - Chinese-style dragons, knights, princesses, a giant sausage and a pair of elephants rolled into downtown Belfast behind a light rain, Saturday as part of the annual Church Street Festival. 

The festival is in its 32nd year.

Organizer Mary Weaver and her young MythWeavers Theater troupe marched into town in costume and bearing floats.

Bella, the Festival’s signature pink elephant, was there, as were some characters and floats from festivals past.

A crowd of spectators turned to greet the parade, and a handful of vendors and lined the block selling crafts and food. There was a cake walk and enough sidewalk chalk to bring large bull-eye that organizers sketched out on the street into full bloom as a mandala of sorts.

The MythWeavers played out a story based on this year’s theme Happily Ever After.

It was the stuff of fable and imagination — staples of the many youth performances at Weaver’s nearby Playhouse Theater.

There were sword fights, acts of chivalry and at least two dragons. As the poster for the festival said:

Let every princess and prince
In town beware
A rumble of dragons is escaping its lair
And marching down Church Street 
Into the Square!

For those willing to believe, that’s exactly what happened. Or how it started, at least.

In the end, the biggest of the dragons was mollified by the afore-mentioned giant sausage. As the theme of the festival implied, the story, like many involving dragons, princesses and princes, had a happy ending.

Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com