Locals at a village pub have managed to raise over £2,000 to give the community some festive cheer this Christmas.

Staff and customers of the Kings Arms, Llandysul have raised an impressive £2,340 through donations from residents and local businesses throughout September.

A Christmas Street Lights community fundraising drive culminated in a big Christmas Light Charity Event on 25 September at the Kings Arms with an auction, swine and dine and singing from Marky T & Stormus and Velvet Soul.

Robert Landlord of Kings Arms said: “We chose to move full time to Llandysul a couple of years ago because of its community spirit, the feel of the community was one of welcome, especially with its Summer Carnival and Christmas Fair.

“Within a couple of months, we took over running the Kings Arms without any idea that within a further three months the whole town along with most of Europe would be locked down, due to the pandemic. In total, our new business was closed for 303 days!”

“We live and work on the high street and the lights have been failing over the past few years” said Robert, "when Marky T, new to the village said he would not mind putting on a charity event an idea grew from there.

“We are all blown away with the huge warmth and generosity of customers, locals, artists and business’s with the amount of time invested, goods donated, monies given with such warmth, fun and community spirit,” he added.

The whole celebration was opened with a touching tribute from Brain Teifi to Mac Macdonald and Jon Springer, two regular customers who had sadly passed away during the lockdown. We had two poems written and read by Dilwyn Morgan as part of the tribute.

Cllr Mike Hotson, chair of Llandysul Community Council said: “We are absolutely delighted with such a display of community generosity and community spirit, especially in such financially challenging times for a lot of people.

“I love the way an idea gathers apace and within a short space of time, people rally around to help out and support their community.

“Llandysul Community Council will make up the difference in the total cost of the Christmas Street Lights replacement as having our high street lit up with many twinkling lights really makes a big difference to people out and about at the darkest time of year.

“On behalf of Llandysul Community Council we are very grateful to the landlords, staff and locals at the Kings arms for coming up with the idea, for putting it into practice and for achieving such a great outcome!”