A SPORTING festival was such a soaring success that carnival birds flew in from Rio for the closing ceremony.

Middlebrook Retail and Leisure Park's fun summer of sport came to a fittingly spectacular close with the birds adding to the carnival theme.

Children and adults stopped to marvel at the exotic beauty of the avian amigos and had selfies taken with them to capture the moment.

Artistic youngsters also made their own carnival masks and Olympic torches in a craft workshop.

To celebrate the Olympics and the Euros, the retail and leisure park has been putting on sporting themed events throughout the summer for people of all ages to take part in.

This has included the tennis champions, a human football table tournament – and PE teachers from the 80s also dropped by to provide some sporting fun.

The retail and leisure park has also been running the Podium Pose competition where people could jump on the winners platform and strike a post.

The best pictures posted on social media with the hashtag #middlebrookpose won their own medal in the form of a prize.

The "Middlebrook Games" have been a huge success with children and shoppers alike.

Centre manager Robert Hallworth said: "The Rio birds were very popular, apparently they each had different personalties — children loved them.

"People were taking selfies with them.

"We have events going all all summer to tie in with the Olympics and encourage children to try different sports and have fun to celebrate the summer of sport. It has been brilliant.

"We had workshops, treasure hunts.

"The Rio birds, with the workshop to make Olympic torches and masks, was our summer of sports finale."