The summer display you have to see – a West Sussex village camping spectacular created from wool

East Preston Yarnbombers set up their summer display at Two Acres, in Sea Road, in time for the East Preston Festival, which runs from June 6 to 15.

A spokesperson for the yarnbombers said: "We like to do a summer installation which reflects the theme of the East Preston Festival. The theme of the festival this year is Games and Pastimes – Past and Present.

"The yarnbombers decided that camping was a very popular pastime for people of all ages and one which gave us the scope to put our creativity to work in a very colourful way.

"We started with the tent. We wanted something that would engage people, so we had the idea of inviting people to send us photos of their own family's camping experiences. These are on show underneath a large canopy covered in eye-catching flowers. People can walk through the tent and look at the pictures.

"Once we had decided on a campsite as the setting, it was easy to come up with lots of things that people could make at home, which could then be brought together on site to create areas for the younger residents to explore. "Obviously, we had to have a campfire and a proper fry up for breakfast. We also have quite an interesting collection of underwear hanging on a washing line.

"The bench has been turned into a pond with lots of creatures for children to find, either in the water, around the edge of the pond or on the wall at the back.

"We have lots of woodland creatures, like hedgehogs and rabbits on the ground. Others, such as birds, bats and spiders, are up in the trees. We wanted a whimsical feel, so we introduced some fairies and elves, not usually seen out in the open but we thought they might put in an appearance in festival week.

"We needed a game, so we made a games table and children can sit on the sheep to play draughts."

The project has taken five months of hard work, with the yarnbombers starting in January by making the flowers to cover the tent. Then it was on to the creatures and camping paraphernalia, and finally the bunting.

The group had three afternoon sessions at the Royal British Legion, sewing the flowers on to a net and stitching together groups of animals and fairies. One group of six was tasked with creating the bench, and that was their total focus.

Putting everything on site on Wednesday, June 4, took three hours. Everything is knitted or crocheted, all using yarn donated by people in the village over the past year.

The yarnbombers meet once a month at East Preston Football Club. Members take in everything they have made since the previous meeting and decide what else they want to make.

While they were working on the summer camp, the yarnbombers also did their annual Easter giveaway of 750 chicks and bunnies, made some fantastic costumes for the festival parade and created fabulous post box topper.

With everything now out on display it is time for the yarnbombers to start planning for Christmas.