No UK town does May Day like Oxford does May Day. Forget your protests and your maypole dancing this is the place to be if you want to really celebrate your extra day off. Traditions dating back pretty much to the dawn of time are upheld by students and local residents in the City of Spires with celebrations to ring in May taking place from the end of April and on.

The partying begins on the night of April 30, with revelling across the town, culminating in a huge fantastic party at Port Meadow - which has been common law since medieval times and, as such, belongs to the people of Oxford. As dawn approaches Morris dancers kick up their heels and ring their bells for the new month but this is a spectacle that you may well miss should you choose to head for Magdalene bridge.

The bridge draws in the big crowds for the dawn of May, with people arriving from about 5am to celebrate with the best of them. Many foolhardy students use this as an excuse for a bracing early morning dip, jumping in to the Cherwell from the bridge. This often ends in disaster as the river is less than six foot deep and the bridge high enough to allow a jumper to get up quite some velocity.

Those who haven’t broken a neck or a leg stick around to hear the Magdalene choir, who begin the day with a medieval Eucharist hymn sung from their chapel tower. The tradition of singing in May Day is a long one with records of such ceremonies dating back to the seventeenth century - rumours suggest though that it dates back even further.

Once the sun is up and the singing over most head for picnics on the college lawns, impromptu cricket or football matches or, of course, down to a local pub garden to continue the long party in to the evening.