Thousands of people flocked to Gravesend for one of the biggest processions in the UK to celebrate Vaisakhi, the birth of Sikhism.

Reporter Elisa Bray found out more ...

This month Gravesend's Sikh community is celebrating its most important festival Vaisahki the birth of its religion.

And that is not the only thing the community is celebrating. In 2006 it will have its largest temple yet.

Built inside and out with marble imported from India, the Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara temple will be situated on Khalsa Avenue. It will be similar in appearance to the holiest site for Sikhs, the Golden Temple in Amritsar and will cost more than £9 million.

Although funded by the Sikh community, it will benefit Gravesend as a whole. As well as being a major tourist attraction, community groups will be able to use the three common rooms and football pitch.

Gurpreet Sandhu, 13, of Hunt Road, Northfleet, is delighted about the new temple. For Gurpreet, it is the facilities offered which will give young people opportunities to learn about the religion which he is most pleased about.

The St George's School pupil said: "People listen to holy readings but they don't understand. We are hoping for a projector screen to help people understand. It's an opportunity for youths to get into Sikhism."

At the procession, two people stood at the front to look after the Holy book which was carried in a golden structure.

Gurpreet's brother, 16-year-old Sukhbinder, who attends Gravesend Grammar School for Boys, had a prominent role in the procession, representing one of the five first-ever Sikhs, wearing a saffron-coloured robe and turban.

Seven thousand people flocked from across Kent to take part in the procession on Saturday, which started on Clarence Place and finished at the new Gurdwara site in Khalsa Avenue.

They gathered for Bhangra dancing and music, wearing orange the symbolic colour of Sikhism and made prayers and traditional donations of food and drink. All excess food was donated to the Lions Hospice,Coldharbour Road, Northfleet, and other charities.

The first Sikhs settled in Gravesend during the 1950s. Men came over from Punjab in India to find work, with the intention of moving back to their homeland, but soon wives and children came over and by the late 1960s, a community was established.

Today, it is the second largest Sikh community in the south east and is home to around 10,000 Sikhs.

Vice-president of the Sikh temple Swaren Singh moved to Gravesend to join his father in 1964 and has lived here ever since.

He said: "It was very different when we came in the 60s but now it's like India."

Their first place of worship a house on Edwin Street is a huge contrast to the monumental temple now being built.

Since 1968 they have used the temple on Clarence Place with a capacity of 400 set in an old church.

Racial equality officer for north west Kent Gurvinder Sandher said: "People will come from all over the country to experience the temple. Because we are close to Europe, I can see people from Europe coming."