Dirty Protest looked to the past to leave a legacy for the future in Pembroke Dock.

Wales’s acclaimed new writing company celebrated its 10th year in style as the landmark production ‘came home’ and culminated in community arts festival for the Pembrokeshire town in which the play is set.

Dirty Protest Theatre Company are celebrating their 10th anniversary year with a production of Lightspeed from Pembroke Dock, a new play by Pembroke writer Mark Williams. The play has toured to 13 venues across Wales, finishing at co-producer venue, the Torch Theatre in Milford Haven last weekend. The end of the tour coincided with May the Fourth and Revenge of the Fifth and to celebrate this and the wonderful town at the heart of the play’s story, the company organised a community led three-day festival, Pembroke Dock Celebrates, sponsored by Valero.

Pembroke Dock Celebrates involved a series of workshops and creative community activities, culminating in a locally-led festival on the weekend of ‘May the Fourth’ (unofficially celebrated worldwide as Star Wars Day), celebrating the area’s unique history and future. Workshops and masterclasses in local schools and Pembrokeshire College built up to a largescale community celebration day in the town on Saturday.

Producer Jennifer Lunn said: “Lightspeed from Pembroke Dock was inspired by the real-life construction in Pembroke Dock shipyard of the full-size Millennium Falcon spaceship, used in the film ‘Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back’. We really wanted to bring the story home to Pembroke Dock. Through highlighting the town’s role in one of the most iconic film franchises of the last 50 years, we hope to broaden the aspirations and horizons of the local community by allowing them to see themselves reflected in this based-on-true-events story. The production received a large touring grant from Arts Council Wales. Part of this funding supported the planning and delivery of a community focussed and led festival in Pembroke Dock, the town at the heart of the play. The project has also been supported by Pembrokeshire County Council and was sponsored by Valero.”

The day started with a procession through the town centre. A giant spaceship led the parade alongside costumed characters from Star Wars, including Stormtroopers and the children involved in the schools’ project carrying the spaceships they created, as well as friends and family, members of the community and tourists who dressed up to walk with them - all to the sound of Samba Doc.

The procession led to the Market Hall in Pembroke Dock where various locally themed and Star Wars related activities took place, including a fancy-dress competition, face painting, screenings of a short film about the building of the Falcon in Pembroke Dock, lightsabre combat academy displays and workshops, Star Wars space ships and gun replica display, and showcasing of past and current work in the dockyard by local companies and stakeholders.

The festival was created and planned in collaboration with local stakeholders including Dilys Burrell, town council, Stuart Berry, Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre, The VC Gallery and the Pembroke Town Team.

Pembrokeshire born writer Mark Williams said: “In 1979, I was too young to be aware of the rumours that the Millennium Falcon was being built on my doorstep in Pembrokeshire. Learning about it later, it felt almost too amazing to be true. The thought of actually getting to see it -what that would mean to someone of Sam’s age, and how that might shape his life - was what first inspired Lightspeed.

“It was wonderful seeing so many people on the streets of Pembroke Dock on Saturday, celebrating this unique history.”