A spectacular parade of painted people took place at the Eden Project on Saturday, October 10 as part of the fifth annual BodyFactory International Body Painting Festival.

Nearly 50 artists competed to create the most spectacular works of body art. Visitors to the Eden Project were given the chance to vote for winners in a number of categories, including body painter of the year and the best male and female models in the show.

The winner of body painter of the year was Justine Darwent who created a piece called Little Red, which was based around the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, motherhood and our relationship with keeping our children safe.

Justine said: “It feels absolutely incredible, I can’t express how I feel. There were so many amazing works of art out there today and I can’t believe that it was me that won, I never win anything!

“What was really great about today was the fact that the public got to see and be part of something different and unique. They were the voters and they got to be part of it. It’s a fantastic place for this event to be held and I’m sure that it will be even bigger next time.”

Artists, models, guests and photographers came from all over the UK, as well as Belgium, Germany, Gibraltar and the Canary Islands.

There were also exhibitions and demonstrations taking place around the site, themed around the exotic surroundings of Eden.

The day started with visitors being given the chance to watch the artists at work in the Core Suite, doing body painting in preparation for the competition.

Later in the day, a parade around the Mediterranean Biome of all the beautifully painted models took place.

Sunday saw the body-painting festivities continued with a variety of camouflage-themed demonstrations around the Eden site.

BodyFactory is an international, biennial body painting festival that encourages collaboration between body painters, models and photographers to create incredible, thought provoking artwork on the human canvas. BodyFactory was set up by Nicola Langridge and her husband Pete following a small gathering of local painters in Cornwall in 2010.

Nicola said: “This is definitely the biggest it’s been, when we started in 2010 there was only four artists and we’ve now got 47 here today. I think the next one, which will be in 2017 at the Eden Project, could potentially be even bigger.

“There have been some amazing pieces created today and I’m really happy that the event has gone down so well with the public. I’ve had so many comments saying how amazing the Eden Project is for something like this and everyone has been really happy. We are just really glad we’ve got the event here.”