The annual Raglan Day carnival parade saw Rocky the Festival mascot on a truck provided by Hockey’s Garage, Raglan CiW Primary School Samba Band and Carnival Walking Group, an amazing float created by Raglan Scouts, the Millennium Chimes bell ringers and Raglan Junior Football Club walking groups as well as many locals in fancy dress parading through the village.

Parade judges, Raglan County Councillor, Penny Jones and Community Councillor, Nick Ramsay, awarded the following prizes: Best Presented float: “The Circus” by Raglan Scouts; Best Presented Walking group: “Samba Carnival”, by Raglan CiW Primary School; Most Humorous Walking group: “Footy” by Raglan Junior Football Club; Best individual Walkers: The Bevan Family girls.

The hugely successful homecraft, floral art and horticulture produce show categories included both junior and adult sections with over 150 entries. Judging was by Angela Bassett Jones for homecraft and Trevor Phillips for horticulture. Entries included various children’s categories for their Victoria sandwich, vegetable cake, Shortbread, cherry tomatoes, carrots, longest runner beans onions and the heaviest marrow. David Cornfield was awarded the AJB Townsend Cup for the being the overall winner of the produce competition, displaying many superb entries. The junior “Design a Dragon” competition sponsored by Viv and Reg Davies, was very popular and won by Dexter Carey-White, who was awarded a family pass to Raglan Farm Park.

The Fun Day itself saw a myriad of local stalls with something for everyone, including bouncy castles; nerf gun competitions; children’s entertainers, Kelly and Debbie; tractor displays; stalls from St Cadoc’s Church, RVHA and lots more. The Companion Annual Dog Show, was a great success with lots of waggy tails and there was a long queue at the ice cream van all afternoon.

To add to the fantastic festival atmosphere the fabulous Keys Band, Pennie Ray and the Tenovus Choir performed on the main stage throughout the afternoon. Around three thousand people enjoyed the lovely summer afternoon and family fun day.

The lucky Raglan Day raffle winner was delighted to win a Hot Air Balloon Flight for two.

Colwyn Knight, Raglan Festival Chair said, “Raglan Day has been a great success bringing out the crowds again this year. The Parade was superb, being executed with military precision and a display of fun from all those taking part. The Festival team would like to thank everyone for participating with true community spirit. There are too many people to mention, but we all deserve to be proud of what we achieved. The village was ready to party having missed two years for lockdown and it was great to see everyone enjoying themselves”.

The Festival Committee would like to thank everyone involved for their support, whether it was parade and produce entrants, local businesses that sponsored or had stalls at the event, volunteers who stewarded the parade and fete, and also to the people who attended the event, as without this support, the Festival would not be sustainable.