Wow!! Weren’t we lucky over the Festival weekend?

Everyone was beginning to wonder whether we would have to cancel the whole event and we got perilously close on Wednesday with howling gales and storms, a problem area on the festival fields and a bad forecast for Saturday and Sunday!

But Sue Ward came to our rescue and allowed us to use her wonderful field 100 yards further up the road and it proved to be a terrific location.

So at the eleventh hour it was ‘all change’ and we had to start from scratch with the site plan and indoor layout (always a big and complicated job at the best of times!).

Anyway you all turned up! It was brilliant of everyone who came to support us, all prepared for a stormy wet weekend which didn’t materialise until later on Sunday!

The only casualty due to the location change was that we had to cancel the pig racing which was such a shame as Adam Vincent and his family have been training them hard! They did make an appearance though and were penned (the pigs--that is!) behind good old-fashioned wooden hurdles on the field so that they didn’t decide to race on their own!

We launched a Really Wild Scarecrow competition this year. The winners were the Small World Theatre Allotment group from Cardigan with a very sophisticated chap carrying a watering can who rotated around when a simple wooden wheel was turned. Second in the Group/Family class was Gwerin-y-Coed (Woodcraft Folk in Wales) from St Nicholas.

In the class for children the competition was won by Courtney Jenkins aged 9 from St Davids and her sister Jessica aged 5, was second. One of the rules for the scarecrow competition was that they had to withstand any weather. Every one was successful despite high winds! Congratulations to all of you.

We had ferret racing again this year, which was popular as always, and gun dog displays, and tiny sheep and gorgeous pigmy goats! Plus we were lucky to have Lloyd the blind hedgehog who made a guest appearance with Beryl who runs Pembrokeshire Hogspital.

Inside the marquee we had fabulous foods, drinks and crafts, environmental groups and outside Really Wild Walks and Talks which were very quick to book up as usual.

There was fierce competition in the three Wellie Wanging classes and we shall be announcing the winner in the next few days. We shall also be announcing the winner of the Really Wild Quiz at the same time.

Pembrokeshire Tourism held the final of their Awards ‘Finest Chef’ Category at the festival on Sunday. Peter Vaughan the author and TV chef judged the three shortlisted chefs, Jethro Lawrence from Carreg Restaurant in Narberth, Andrew Holcroft from Cwtch in St Davids and Tom Hunt from the Stackpole Inn who cooked up and presented wonderful menus of local food. The result will remain a closely guarded secret until October 16th when the winner will be announced at the Pembrokeshire Tourism Gala Dinner at the De Valence Pavilion in Tenby.