A COMMUNITY-owned pub in north Pembrokeshire is set to welcome visitors for a weekend celebrating local music, food and drink, with all proceeds from voluntary donations supporting charity.

The Crymych Arms will stage its annual free-entry festival on Friday, July 10, and Saturday, July 11, transforming the pub’s car park into an outdoor entertainment space complete with performance areas, seating, outside bars and food stalls.

Organised by the pub’s volunteers and committee, the event will showcase a line-up of local musicians alongside Pembrokeshire and Welsh beers, craft gins and street food. While admission is free, organisers will be collecting donations throughout the weekend in aid of Motor Neurone Disease (MND) charities.

Music gets underway at 5.30pm on Friday with Chris Kelly, followed by the Tom Collins Band Duo at 7.30pm and Rosanna at 9.00pm.

Saturday’s programme begins at 2.00pm with Alex English before performances from Hari Harmonies, Gwen Fel ‘Na Mai, Garfield, The Collective, and Tin Man Revolution, who take to the stage at 9.00pm.

Visitors are encouraged to bring folding chairs, although seating will also be available on site.

A selection of street food will be served from outdoor counters throughout the event, while outside bars and gin trailers will offer a range of locally produced drinks.

The Crymych Arms reopened in 2023 after being purchased by the local community through a share offer that attracted investment from 285 people. The former village pub underwent a major refurbishment before reopening as a community-owned social enterprise and now also serves as the clubhouse for Crymych Football Club.

The venue has since become a focal point for community events, with the annual music weekend highlighting local performers and producers while raising money for good causes.

HUNDREDS of visitors are expected to descend on Fishguard later this month as the town marks the anniversary of the Last Invasion of Britain with a spectacular free historical re-enactment.

The two-day event, taking place on July 18 and 19, recreates the dramatic events of 1797, when French troops landed near Fishguard in what remains the last invasion of mainland Britain.

Running from 10:00am to 5:00pm on both days, the event will feature living history camps, military displays, horse demonstrations, battle re-enactments and the recreation of the historic French surrender outside the Royal Oak Pub.

Visitors will be able to meet costumed re-enactors portraying British and French soldiers, explore authentic military encampments and discover what life was like for troops more than 225 years ago through interactive displays.

The day’s programme begins at 10:00am with the living history camps opening to the public. Horse displays will take place on Goodwick Beach Foreshore from 1:00pm, before the main beach battle gets underway at 2:45pm.

The event concludes with a parade of the surrendered French forces through Fishguard before the symbolic signing of the surrender treaty outside the Royal Oak Pub, where the original surrender negotiations took place following the failed invasion.

The Last Invasion of Britain re-enactment has become one of Pembrokeshire’s best-loved heritage events, attracting history enthusiasts and families from across Wales and beyond.

Visitors making a weekend of it can also explore the new Fishguard and Goodwick Heritage Trail, launched this summer. The free self-guided trail links 46 sites across the twin towns and tells the story of more than 2,000 years of local history, from Iron Age settlements and the Women’s Suffrage movement to the filming of Moby Dick.

The Last Invasion of Britain re-enactment is free to attend.

For the full programme of events, visit visitfishguard.co.uk.

More information about the Fishguard and Goodwick Heritage Trail is available at northpembrokeshiretours.co.uk/fishguard-heritage-trail. 

Immersive Sue Dewhurst show at Oriel Cardi Bach brings 1970s working-class memories vividly back to life

A UNIQUE exhibition at Oriel Cardi Bach in Cardigan is bringing back memories, laughter and unexpected emotion, as visitors are invited to step inside the aftermath of a typical 1970s working-class party.

Narrative artist and storyteller Sue Dewhurst has transformed part of the gallery into an immersive experience where people are encouraged to do far more than simply look at paintings.

Visitors can scan QR codes to hear playlists inspired by each character, smell the perfumes and aftershaves of the era, browse shopping lists and handwritten notes, discover favourite recipes, and even add their own memories to Menna’s Teapot.

Sue said: “It’s lovely watching people realise they’re allowed to interact. Once they start exploring the boxes and reading the stories, conversations begin.

“Suddenly they’re telling me about their auntie, their neighbour, or someone they’d completely forgotten until that moment.”

The exhibition celebrates the humour, resilience and quiet dignity of ordinary working-class lives, drawing inspiration from people and memories from Northern Britain and rural West Wales.

What begins as a smile at the characters often becomes something deeper, as visitors recognise fragments of their own families, streets and childhoods in the stories.

One visitor described the exhibition as so moving that she joked she “needed therapy” afterwards. Many others have already left their own memories in Menna’s Teapot, creating a growing collection of local stories alongside the artwork.

From the Outside Looking In brings together several connected bodies of work.

A Bit of a Do revisits the colourful characters Sue observed at family weddings and parties as a child, complete with a ceramic buffet featuring sad sausage rolls and a half-eaten cheese and pineapple hedgehog.

The Chapel Girls explores how modern rituals have replaced traditional worship, as glamorous women hurry past chapels on their way to bottomless brunches, bingo, shopping trips and pamper sessions.

Ghost Town reflects on the bittersweet experience of returning to your hometown, only to discover that it has moved on without you.

The exhibition is completed by Sue’s new Cardigan Bay series, in which she explores the area’s rich maritime heritage through the eyes of an affectionate outsider.

Sue hopes visitors will leave having laughed first, then remembered someone they thought had been forgotten.

From the Outside Looking In continues at Oriel Cardi Bach on Cardigan High Street, next to The Hive Ice Cream Parlour, until July 30.

Visitors are invited to slow down, explore the stories and perhaps leave one of their own.