A COLOURFUL spectacle of celebrating Holi, the Indian Spring Festival, at Durham University’s Oriental Museum, had to be cancelled because of the snow - but other activities went ahead.

Also known as the Festival of Colours, Holi is usually celebrated by throwing brightly coloured powders over friends and relatives.

Every year the festival is celebrated with timed powder throwing sessions, art and craft activities, storytelling, music, and traditional rangoli drawing.

The heavy snow forced the cancellation of the powder throwing sessions, but all of the other activities went ahead as planned.

For those who wanted to organise their own powder throw at home, bags of the colourful powder were available for sale at the museum.

Charlotte Spink, the event organiser, said: “This year’s Holi festival was a bit unusual thanks to the snowy weather.

“We had tremendous support from the Indian community in organising the event and were determined to go ahead and have a wonderful day.

“We had about 100 visitors come along, which wasn’t bad, considering there was a blizzard on the morning.

“We also had great support from volunteers who trekked through the snow to help out with the activities.”