The Christmas decorations are up and the weather is cold, but plans are under way for next year's Cowley Road Carnival.

African dance, music and crafts were all part of a special celebration of carnival culture at East Oxford Community Centre, Princes Street, on Saturday.

The Spirit of Africa day was the first event organised as part of the activities surrounding the carnival, which will be held on Sunday, July 6 - funded by a £40,000 Heritage Lottery grant.

Throughout the day, three dance workshops were held, with Rachel Butler teaching Ghanaian dance, Spencer Ngwenya leading a workshop in Zulu dance and Zimbabwean gumboot dancing, and Mariana Pinhot showing off samba reggae moves from Brazil.

The carnival's education officer, Henrietta Gill, said: "The dance workshops were the heart of it and the young people had a really good time.

"And the adults really enjoyed the children being in the same workshop with them."

The aim of the day was to look at the African origins of carnival, and explore the dance and music traditions which have shaped carnival celebrations.

Ms Hill said: "We had a Zambian family doing the Brazilian dance, and a family from Albania dancing in the Ghanaian workshop.

"It finished with a showcase, which was really lovely as all the different workshops came together in a performance."

About 120 people attended throughout the day, with 42 people taking part in one of the workshops.

Ms Gill said: "The focus was bringing everybody together to do what we do for carnival in a really small way. It really showed the origins of carnival.

"The other really exciting thing was putting all the different mixes together, it was a really nice rich mix."

In February, the carnival education programme will continue with the creation of an African dance club based at the Ark T Centre, in Cowley.

Ms Gill was also keen to build on links built at the African day and explore the carnival cultures of Poland and Albania and hopefully make that part of next year's carnival.

She said: "I want to learn how they celebrate in their countries.

"We also want to set up club nights in the Cowley Road with different music as fundraisers for the carnival.

"I was really heartened by the success of the Spirit of Africa day."

Last summer's Cowley Road Carnival attracted 25,000 people.