A carnival parade made a return to Raglan for only the second time for 35 years.

Raglan residents saw Rocky the festival mascot, the ATC Marching Band leading the Festival King and Queen, Joseph Hynes and Jessica James driven in a classic convertable Crossle, owned and driven by Malcolm Hatfield.

Other carnival entries included Jon Rosier’s vintage Delorean, Graham Willmotts Vesper scooter a US military humvee tank from the Tank School, Usk, the Parry family in a vintage car, the Millennium Chimes bell ringers as well as many locals in fancy dress parading through the village!

Five amazing floats were created and paraded as part of the carnival. The first was an amazing pirate boat by Raglan Young Farmers, the second was a fantastic castle by the Raglan 1st Scouts, others included Raglan WI, Raglan Junior Football and finally a pony and trap in a cowboy theme by Wendy Williams, Louise Dearman and families.

Floats and fancy dress judges, Penny Jones, Assembly Member Nick Ramsay and his partner Jennifer Davidson, awarded the following prizes: Best Presented float: Raglan 1st Scouts; Most Humorous float: Raglan Young Farmers; Best Sports Club float: Raglan Junior Football and Highly Commended float: Raglan WI.

Colwyn Knight, Raglan Festival committee chairman said: “Having received so much positive feedback from the inaugural Funday as part of Raglan Music Festival last year, we decided to rebrand this in its original format as Raglan Day, which has been so popular in the village over the years and set in the original venue at the sports fields”.

Their very first and hugely successful homecraft, floral art and horticulture produce show categories included both junior and adult sections and was judged by Angela Bassett Jones for homecraft and Trevor Phillips for horticulture.

Winners included Margaret Lawrence for both traybake and victoria sponge, Max Jenkins for vegetable collection and arrangement in a jam jar and for the children’s categories, Evie Pierce for decorated biscuits, Elizabeth Williams for a decorated Wellington boot and Ben Turner for decorated cup-cakes.

Based on the success of last year’s event, the Festival Committee were also delighted to invite all 52 community groups in the village to the second “Big Lunch” where everyone got together with a picnic to eat lunch together.

Raglan Young Farmers hosted a dramatic Ping Pong Drop raising money for Velindre Hospice in memory of Gwent YFCs late president Kath Richardson, and raised over £400 pounds.

To add to the festival atmosphere Cwmbrân singing duo The Pashy Pops and local girl Lucy Merrett performed on the main stage throughout the afternoon.

Colwyn Knight, Raglan Festival Committee Chair said: “Raglan Day has been a great success this year, even heavy rain earlier in the day did not deter a huge community spirit as we saw the whole village come to enjoy a day for all ages.

“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”.

For a full spread of pictures, see this week’s Beacon (2nd September)