PREPARATIONS are well underway for Hatherleigh Carnival which takes place this Saturday in the market town.

Volunteers have been working for weeks to build the tar barrels which get the festivities off to a roaring start when they are set alight at 5am on Saturday morning.

The tar barrels are built by hand and stacked one on top of each other on sledges to be pulled through the streets. The Tar Barrel Committee have been busy building two sets this year, including three giant barrels which are the largest the carnival has seen since 2006. At 6ft high, it will be pulled on a sledge 12ft long.

‘We have one set of barrels for the morning and one set for after the carnival in the evening,’ said spokeswoman Louise Bater. ‘It think we are going to be lighting the bigger set in the morning because there will be fewer people about.’

The Tar Barrel Committee have also been busy constructing torch sticks, which will lead the evening procession in a figure of eight through the narrow streets.

‘They meet for a few weeks in October and gradually cut the sticks and use hessian to make the torches,’ said Louise. ‘These will make a beautiful frame of burning torches to lead the procession.

‘On the Friday night, the children help to pull the unlit barrels through the town so they are in place for the next morning, and they chant “oggy oggy oggy oi oi oi”. It is a lovely little tradition. It is so cute, over the years, to see little faces on the Friday night and they are ones pulling the tar barrels now, all grown up.’

Hatherleigh is famed for the quality and creativity of its floats, which groups of family and friends have been working on for months. There are classes for the traditional crepe paper floats and for ones constructed from other materials.

The carnival royalty, Queen Annie Strawbridge and Prince and Princess Harry Winearls and Zoe Wonnacott, are crowned during the afternoon.

Everyone will then congregate for the evening procession at Vicks Market at 6pm for the judging, before the procession heads off through the town.

Entries are still open for floats up until 12 noon today. Call carnival secretary Dawn Stevens on 01837 810265.

Residents are also invited to decorate their house, or create a guy to put outside their home on carnival morning. To enter the competition, call Louise Bater on 01837 811255.