Girl power will be to the fore this week in South East Cornwall as a new festival gets under way.

The Women of Looe Festival is celebrating the role played by women in traditional industries such as fishing - and looking towards the future by encouraging girls to consider careers in the marine, fishing and seafood sectors.

A week of events started yesterday (Monday) at the Old Sardine Factory as Brownies and Guides from Looe learned about the present and past jobs carried out on their town’s harbour, and created artwork for the festival weekend.

Tomorrow (Wednesday March 6) there will be a rosette making workshop at 2pm, ahead of a talk on the Suffragettes of Devon and Cornwall at 7pm, accompanied by the Looe Valley Singers.

Thursday will be a primary schools workshop day, and on Friday, to coincide with International Women’s Day, there will be a panel discussion entitled ‘Tipping the Scales’. Harbourmaster Tina Hicks, businesswoman Angela Harrison from Pengellys fishmongers and Victoria Thomas of the Royal Navy and RNLI will talk about the roles they carry out, and field questions from the audience.

On Saturday, an exhibition of the week’s activities will include as its centrepiece photographs and case studies of all those nominated as ‘inspirational women of Looe’.

And on Sunday, young members of two local dance schools will perform a ‘Dancing the Waves’ piece focusing on the roles of women in Looe over time.