King’s Arms embraces Arundel Festival spirit with family fete

IT’S going to be all the fun of the fete at a popular Arundel pub, with a special event on Monday as the town’s festival draws to a close.
The King's Arms, ArundelThe King's Arms, Arundel
The King's Arms, Arundel

The King’s Arms, in Tarrant Street, promises a wealth of good old-fashioned games and activities for all the family and the revival of a couple of the town’s traditions which haven’t taken place for several years.

The pub is organising a real community event on bank holiday Monday, August 26, with all the proceeds going to the Snowdrop Trust. And to add to the excitement, there will be a traditional tug-of-war between teams from the town’s pubs.

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The event will be opened at 1pm by well-known musician John Ottway and the hill outside the pub will be thronging with stalls and games. Among the highlights will be the specially-built stocks and rumour has it that Arundel mayor Michael Tu will be one of those receiving light-hearted punishment from the crowd.

The tug of war, with teams from all the town’s pubs vying to be the champions, is scheduled for 4.15pm. This hard-fought contest was a lively and highly-competitive festival tradition in years gone by.

“We want to get all the community involved,” said Rachel Maynard from the King’s Arms, who is organising the fete. “The idea is to have lots of old-fashioned games and stalls like Roll a Penny, Splat the Rat, guessing the weight of a cake or the number of beans in a jar.

“The emphasis is on fun for everyone – we’ll have a magician coming along and there’ll be live music all afternoon.”

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Charlie and Ali Malcolmson, who own the pub, are great supporters of community events, and the pub will be buzzing throughout the festival. On Tuesday, the monthly quiz was in aid of the RNLI.

And tonight (Thursday, August 22), the dancing queens will be out in force again for Abba on the Hill. This evening has become established as one of the events every year during the festival and to cope with the ever-increasing crowds who flock to it, this year there will be an outside bar and food from Boca Loco.

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