Thousands have fun in sun at events across region

The seventh annual Oswestry Food Festival, West Felton Carnival and the historic Wenlock Olympian Games were held over the weekend and thousands turned out to enjoy activities and entertainment.

People from all over the region descended on Oswestry to make the most of the summer heatwave, fine food and entertainment.

Crowds started gathering at least an hour before the event was due to get underway on Saturday with many stallholders opening early just to satisfy the expectant shoppers.

Buskers turned out to add to the jazz music on the Bailey Head while yesterday street entertainers and musicians mingled with the streams of visitors.

John Waine, one of those behind the food festival, said he had been astonished by the attendance.

"The crowds were just amazing," he said.

"People love coming to the Oswestry Food Festival because it is out in the streets, like a market should be and it is not too large. We also pride ourselves on the fact that about 95 per cent of the stallholders are from a 30-35 mile radius of the town."

"There was such a brilliant atmosphere. Some young buskers showed their initiative and turned up performing some great music and everyone has a smile on their face."

He said the festival always had more applicants for stalls than it could accommodate.

"It is becoming harder and harder to decide which to allow take part in the festival, the quality is so good. Oswestry and the surrounding area has so many good food producers."

One of the stars of the event was Grant Williams, head chef of the West Arms in Llanarmon, North Wales, who took his Welsh Black Beef dish to the TV serious, Great British Dish.

"This is the first time we have been to the festival and it is just great. We wanted to bring the West Arms into Oswestry and tell people about just how wonderful the Ceiriog Valley is," he said.

Cookery demonstrations by the Ideal Home television chef Malcom Carradine and Jack Hatley, chef at the Navigation Inn, took place at the Upstairs Downstairs shop in Leg Street.

Hundreds of people also enjoyed the fun-packed West Felton Carnival yesterday, which was originally founded in July 1991.

It started with the carnival king and queen and their attendants leading a procession of six decorated floats through the village at 1.30pm from the Punch Bowl pub. Organisations such as the village's Methodist church and the Royal British Legion got involved with the day and had created colourful floats that thrilled the crowds.

The parade marched its way around the village, near Oswestry, to the playing field on Tedsmore Road where a full afternoon of family entertainment was held.

An array of side stalls and craft stalls was on offer for visitors as well as a tombola, bric-a-brac stand, and bottle stall. Tea, cakes and ice cream were also provided courtesy of West Felton Women's Institute plus a fully-licensed bar, BBQ and the carnival grand draw which had a top prize of £100.

Councillor Dianne Barnes of West Felton Parish Council was on one of the floats and said the event had been supported by the whole village.

She said: "It has been extremely well supported and everybody has been enjoying themselves. The weather has been kind and that obviously helps because last year we were up to our knees in mud and people perhaps don't stay around as long.

"There must have been a fair few hundred people who came out to watch the carnival and it's great to see such a successful show after all the hard work put in by the carnival committee."

This year's carnival queen was Rhiannon Powis and the carnival king was Josh Olufsen. Their attendants were Abby Nicholas, Ellie Kelsall, Poppy Terry, Emily Walker, Olivia Burke, Kai Hurdman, Rachel McGovern Roe, Oliver Perry, Martha Creaser Ogden, William Davies, Lucy Stokes, Lewis Jones, Beth Terry and Dylan Davies.

For the second weekend in a row Much Wenlock was turned into a giant party town as the 127th Wenlock Olympian Games continued over the weekend.

On Saturday the junior modern biathlon was held which was followed by the main triathlon and Seven Mile Road Race which took place yesterday among various other sporting competitions including tennis, archery and athletics. Bowls, fencing, football, gliding and clay pigeon shooting were also held as residents and visitors flooded out onto the streets to enjoy the latest instalments of the 16-day event.

A total of 144 people took part in the Games' 23rd triathlon which involved competitors swimming, cycling and running. It was eventually won by Black Country Triathletes runner Paul Rogers, who also triumphed last year and the first woman to finish was Anna Bartlett of Shrewsbury-based running club SYTri.

People travelled from places as far afield as London and Bristol to take part in the event and organiser Simon MacVicker, 48, said the day had gone according to plan.

"We had a very good race in hot conditions," he said. "It was quite hard holding an endurance event in this heat but it went well and its pretty amazing that this was the 23rd year of our race.

"It is very much a grassroots event and we had loads of people competing for the first time as well as people who come back year after year."

He added: "The Games are really an inspiration here in Much Wenlock and the history this place has is incredible. All across the board we get strong competitions and that's one of the reasons it remains so successful."