PREPARATIONS for this year’s Astwood Bank Carnival are well underway.

The weekend of festivities starts at 7.30pm on Friday, July 11 in the marquee at SE Davis where there will be a horse race night, before continuing on Saturday, July 12 with the carnival procession starting out from SE Davis at noon and returning to the field at 2pm.

The roads of Astwood Bank will be closed from noon until 2pm for the carnival procession, led by a horse and carriage provided by Thomas Brothers.

It will hold this year’s carnival royalty of Queen Molly Jones, Prince Joshua Shewell and Princess Pheobe Yates.

Upon returning to SE Davis in Edgioake Lane the carnival field will hold a host of stalls, beer tent, Pimms tent, tea tent, fairground attractions and arena events, including a tug of war competition.

From 3pm there will be a wide range of musical entertainment ranging from a local rock choir, through a Samba band, and finishing about 8pm with local band The Callout.

Carnival committee chair Jenny Lightfoot said: “All of these events take a lot of hard work by a dedicated team to put them on, but we are always so brilliantly supported, we know we will raise lots of money for local charities and organisations, so in the end the whole community benefits.

"So whether you buy a programme, a raffle ticket, throw some pennies in a bucket on the procession, or come along to the race night, it helps us raise money to the benefit of all, whilst having some great fun along the way."

Committee member Lesley Jones said he was particularly pleased to reintroduce an event on the Friday night.

“We wanted to reintroduce the Friday night fun as it’s a great opener for the weekend," he added.

"The race card of 12 races have all been brilliantly supported and sponsored by local businesses, and we have a very special raffle prize being provided by Listers of Droitwich of a Jaguar car for a weekend.

"We want the people of Astwood Bank to come down for the evening, place those bets, buy those raffle tickets, and enjoy the bar, and make sure we get our fundraising off to a brilliant start.”

For more information about the weekend, visit astwoodbankcarnival.co.uk.