If you’re heading down to Ipswich Waterfront for Maritime Ipswich tomorrow you might want to keep your eyes peeled for a very familiar pirate.

Quayside Bar and Restaurant has hired Melo, the UK’s leading Jack Sparrow and Johnny Depp look-a-like to make a special appearance today at its pirate-themed party to kickstart its Maritime celebrations.

Families are welcome for the first part of the evening and fancy dress is encouraged. Later in the evening prizes of bottles of rum and gift vouchers will be awarded by Captain Jack himself for the best dressed pirates.

Max Moussa of Quayside said: “We wanted to kick it off and get the ball rolling, we sat down to think of something fun to do and Laura our general manager came up with the idea.”

Captain Sparrow’s look-a-like appearance will mark Quayside’s first ever themed night. Mr Moussa added: “The pirate theme ties in with maritime, we thought ‘if you’re going to do something, do it properly’, we weren’t going to just get one of the chefs to dress up - this guy has a bit of pedigree.”

Saturday and Sunday Quayside will be running a BBQ and outside bar by the Customs House from 11am. There will also be a special lunchtime menu from noon-4pm each day.