Fairlie Gala takes place this weekend (19 and 20 August) at a new venue. This year the Gala is being held at Fairlie’s award winning Community Garden and will feature the return of the annual raft race amongst other water based activities.

Kicking off with an opening parade leaving from Bay Street at 11.30am, the Gala will officially start at 12 noon with the Raft Race being held at 1pm. On Saturday there will also be Coastal Rowing events and an opportunity for youngsters to try their hands at other sailing activities. For those who are a little more adventurous there will be rib runs provided by Cumbrae Voyages although there will be an extra charge for this.

Meanwhile on land, children and adults can try the climbing wall, with bouncy castles, teacups and other rides available for youngsters. There will also be face painting and a selfie corner as well as various stalls and the annual tombola bottle stall.

As usual there will be a bar selling a selection of real ale, ciders, wine and spirits. The BBQ this year has a surf and turf theme with a variety of burgers and fresh hand dived scallops available.

The vintage tearoom returns providing cream teas with prosecco with a 40’s and 50’s theme including live piano music. Donations of home baking would be most welcome and can be made in advance to Julie Hill or Lizzie Carr or brought along on the morning of the Gala.

Later on music is provided by Crisis from around 7pm later into the night.

Cllr Alan Hill who is a committee member said, “This promises to be one of the best Gala weekends for some time. The change of venue and use of our coastal location will add greatly to the event and I am very much looking forward to it. We have retained many features of previous weekends but added a host of new activities taking advantage of access to the water.

Of course Fairlie’s award winning Community Garden provides not just the most amazing setting for the event but also the opportunity for people to come and visit the garden itself. Tours will be available as well as the opportunity for some of our younger visitors to take advantage of pond dipping and other wildlife and environmental activities. All we need now is some sunshine.”

Sunday this year, as always, will be a more low key, family oriented day although the peace and quiet will be shattered at some point when the first Annual Fairlie Water and Custard Pie fight takes place. The bar will be open with the BBQ providing an alternative to Sunday lunch.