The annual Topsham Town Fayre and Carnival gets underway this weekend, with a special programme of events to mark its 80th anniversary.

The events run from this Saturday, August 20, until next Saturday, August 27th, when the celebrations conclude with the carnival procession.

As well as marking the fayre’s 80th year, this year’s celebrations will also be commemorating 150 years of the Avocet Railway Line, as well as the 33rd and final year the festivities will be sponsored by the Price family at the Globe Hotel before it is sold.

The concluding carnival will see the main road through Topsham closed to traffic and organisers expect up to 7,000 people to pack the streets.

Topsham town crier and Fayre committee member Keith Smith said: “This is Topsham’s biggest event of the year, and we hope it will be fun for the kids and for people of all ages.”

Keith is urging people to enjoy all the fun, and to get involved with the organising committee as a lack of helpers and the prospective sale of the Globe could make planning next year’s event more difficult.

He said: “We have a lack of volunteers and, with the Price family at the Globe selling up, we don’t know, when the new owners come in, if they will continue to sponsor the event.”

The major events to look out for during the week are Topsham Flower and Vegetable Show this Sunday at Matthews Hall, the Dog Show on the Matthews Hall green on Tuesday, August 23, the Flower Arranging Exhibition at St Margeret’s Church next Thursday and Friday, August 25 and 26, and the carnival procession itself next Saturday, August 27.