A VERY Good Friday! Revellers hit the town as they celebrate the four-day weekend in

Revellers hit the town last night to celebrate the four-day weekend in style – but some Easter bunnies may wake up sore heads this morning after enjoying a particularly Good Friday.

The streets of Newcastle and Leeds were filled with party-goers as celebrants dressed up to make the most of the festive weekend.

With some in elaborate jockey outfits, others enjoyed the occasion as cheerleaders, aliens and even super villains.

But as the Easter Bank Holiday started in earnest police forces also took to the street in force – with one man in Newcastle’s city centre having to be escorted away by officers.

In Newcastle punters braved temperatures as low as five degrees in the hunt for a night out, while in Leeds it got as cold as six degrees.

Luckily, the rain held off as revellers danced the night away in skimpy outfits despite the brisk winds.

It comes as ambulance services warned that there may be increased delays as they face mounting calls over the four days.

London Ambulance Service is expecting to recieve around 20,000 999 calls as they warned the public to only contact them if the matter is urgent. 

This is despite preparing for the Christian holiday by putting on extra ambulances, response vehicles and control room staff.

It comes amid warnings of Easter being thrown into chaos by ‘carmageddon’ and ferry firm DFDS predicting disruption ‘due to strong winds’ on Thursday, while rail passengers contend with the impact of Storm Nelson. 

Darren Farmer, Director of Ambulance Operations at London Ambulance Service, said: ‘We hope everyone enjoys Easter but please be ready for the four day weekend.

‘We would ask the public to help us manage demand by making sure they have the medication they need ahead of the bank holiday. 

‘If it’s urgent, but it’s not a serious medical emergency, please consider other options such as GPs and pharmacies as some of these services will still be available, or NHS 111 online. 

‘NHS 111 should be your first port of call if you’re unsure what to do or unsure which service you need.

‘If you need advice or medication from a pharmacist in London, use the NHS pharmacy finder to check which pharmacies are open near you.

‘Please also check on any vulnerable family or friends ahead of the weekend to make sure they are safe and have the medication that they need.

‘Only call 999 when it’s a serious medical emergency so we can prioritise responding to the most seriously ill and injured patients.’

And Easter threatened being thrown into chaos as queues of 15 to 20 miles were seen on the M4 and M5 interchange near Bristol, which is adding 45 minutes on to journey times.

Meanwhile, the western side of the M25 was described as ‘pretty bad’ and a ‘lot worse than normal’, with 40-minute queues. 

RAC spokesman Simon Williams said: ‘Everyone’s heading to Devon and Cornwall, that’s the attraction, and there’s been a bit of better weather.

‘It’s causing some pretty horrendous queues.’

This afternoon, holidaymakers still faced 90 minute delays at the Port of Dover, down from two hours.

Two million Britons are expected to jet off abroad for the long weekend – with big queues forming at some of the country’s major airports today.

But some train services are not going ahead due to pre-planned engineering works on the southern end of the West Coast Mainline – turning the normally frantic London Euston railway station into a ghost town.

And incidents on some of the motorways on Friday have threatened to disrupt thousands of journeys across the country.

Crashes were reported on the M5, causing an 85 minute delay, and on the M40 – both roads have since re-opened, albeit with knock-on hold-ups to traffic.

And Network Rail has urged train passengers to check their journey details before they travel because some major routes will be closed due to engineering work – with 493 upkeep projects happening across the Easter period.

The West Coast Main Line between London Euston and Milton Keynes, used by Avanti West Coast trains to and from Scotland, is shut for four days from today.

Network Rail said it was laying new track near Kensal Green tunnel in north west London and replacing a busy junction just south of Milton Keynes.

Buses will run from Potters Bar to Watford Junction and Milton Keynes to London.

There will also be disruption to ScotRail services because of work to renew tracks and points over a major junction between Glasgow Central and Cambuslang and Polmadie Depot.

And in West Yorkshire, work will continue on the TransPennine Route Upgrade, with new tracks being laid around Huddersfield. This will mean changes to trains on routes such as Sheffield to Leeds and all trains to Huddersfield itself.

Greater Anglia warned of disruption across its routes because of construction work for the new Beaulieu Park station in Chelmsford, as well as track maintenance work.

Train services between London and many East Anglia locations, including Norwich, Ipswich and Colchester, will be replaced by buses for part of the journey.

And in London, the Elizabeth line will be closed due to engineering work through the centre of the capital between London Paddington and Stratford and Abbey Wood.

Network Rail’s network strategy director Laurence Bowman said: ‘There’s never a good time to do the work we need to do but the four days of the bank holiday, when fewer people are travelling, give us the opportunity to do major work we couldn’t do in normal weekend.’

On the south coast, the Port of Dover authority said shortly before 11am today that queues were at least two hours long – but advised that French border controls were ‘flowing well’ despite delays caused by last night’s stormy weather.

It said on X, formerly Twitter: ‘The tourist processing time is around two hours from arrival at the Port as we approach our peak travel time on Good Friday. Thank you to the local community for your patience as we work to keep traffic moving.’