Members of the Saundersfoot Chamber for Tourism have been busy preparing the village for its annual family friendly event the Saundersfoot Big ‘Double’ Bang Weekend held tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday).

Every year the entire village joins in with the spirit of the event with local people and business owners taking part in fancy dress and a best dressed Halloween window competition by decorating their shop windows following a spooky ‘Fangtastic’ Halloween theme.

The fun starts on the Friday night with the ‘Trick or Treat’ trail which is being run again this year by the Wisemans Bridge Junior Rowing Club as part of the Big Bang weekend. Tickets are £3 per child and are available from Saundersfoot Sports Club from 6:30pm on the night on a first come first served basis. There will also be tickets on sale from Friday 18th October, available from Little & Large Lite Bites coffee shop and the Regency Hall. The trail will take the children around the participating businesses in the village where, on showing their trail ticket, they receive a goody bag. The trail ends with a disco and fancy dress competition at the Regency Hall from 7:30pm to 9:00pm

Along with the trick or treat trail is the ‘Spooky Bat Trail’, a free activity which runs all week. Cuddly bat are hidden in the various shops around the village, match the name of the bat to the name of the shop and enter a draw to win the toy and a Halloween goody bag. They can also vote for their favourite best dressed shop window at the same time. Forms can be picked up from Little & Large Lite Bites, Dilys photography gallery, Elements of Pembrokeshire and The Regency Hall. All completed forms must be posted in the red postbox outside Dilys photography gallery by 5 pm on Friday 1st November. Winners will be notified on Saturday 2nd November.

The popular ‘Pumpkin Carving Competition’ will be running from Dilys photography gallery. It is free to enter and suitable for ALL family members with separate age categories ranging from under 7’s to over 30’s with a winning prize for each category and a goody bag for each entrant!

This year the prizes include free tickets to Heatherton, Folly Farm, Manor House Park and the Blue Lagoon, as well as local prizes donated by Saundersfoot Chamber for Tourism members.

To take part, simply bring your finished carved pumpkins to Dilys photography gallery on High Street from Thursday October 24th from 10:30am and fill in an entry form. You will receive your goody bag when you submit your pumpkin! The pumpkins will be displayed outside the gallery for all to enjoy and stored safely inside overnight. All entries have to be in by 5:00pm on Saturday October 26th with judging and winners being announced from the gallery at 5:30pm.

New for this year’s Big Bang Weekend and half-term week is the family friendly ‘Ghost Train’ which will run on Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th and again on Thursday 31st October (Halloween) and Friday 1st November.

Families can climb aboard the ghostly train and listen to the story of ‘Funny Bones - The Ghost Train’ as it takes you around the sights and sounds of the village including the famous plantation woods and the tunnels that the miners used to walk along in the “dark dark night , down the dark dark street to the dark dark harbour where there is a ghost train”. Whooooooooooo!

The train will leave the harbour approximately every 30 minutes from 1pm with the last train running at 5pm. Tickets can be bought from the driver on the day (they only have skeleton staff working!)

The Halloween theme continues around the village with a funfair on the harbour from midday with spooky rides playing themed music, local bars and restaurants offering themed menus and children enjoying the themed window displays.

It all builds to the finale on the Saturday with two free firework displays, one set off earlier in the evening at 6:30 pm with the last display later at 8 pm.

There will be car parking at The Regency Hall, Saundersfoot Harbour and Coppet Hall and an extended bus service to and from Tenby on the Saturday night of the fireworks display for those who do not want to park in the village.

Finally, if you enjoyed the free firework displays and other activities around the village, the Saundersfoot Chamber for Tourism are asking you to show your support by entering their Saundersfoot Grand Draw to win some fabulous prizes donated by Chamber members. All entries are £1 each (with unlimited entries) with all the proceeds from the draw going towards funding future free events for the village. Look out for the Grand Draw Gazeebo at the top of the beach slipway on the harbour on the Saturday night of the Big Bang. The more entry tickets you buy, the more you are showing your support for the Saundersfoot Chamber for Tourism (and the more chances you have of winning a fabulous prize!)

For full information on the weekend and a full list of Grand Draw prizes, please go to www.visitsaunderfsfootbay.com or see our facebook page Visit Saundersfoot