by Angela Cole

Not every Christmas fair gets a flypast by the Red Arrows – but then, not every event is the Wrotham Christmas Fair.
Each year, organisers of the event go to town, planning weird and wacky events, such as last year’s synchronised swimming and dragon slaying.
But this year, they have outdone themselves, by hiring the Royal Air Force aerobatic team to fly over the event on Saturday.
Peter Gillim , one of the organisers, joked: “Wrotham is Wrotham you know. We don’t do things by halves. Obviously, we don’t have the Red Arrows every year; this is the first time. But we are a bit special.”
Organisers were able to secure the display team because they were already going to another event in the county on the same day. The Red Arrows have been in the news recently after they appointed their first woman pilot, Flight Lieutenant Kirsty Moore from Lincolnshire.
Mr Gillim said: “We don’t know if she’ll be in the team, but we’d love it if she parachuted down and joined in the fun.”
The flypast will, weather permitting, take place at 2.20pm, after Father Christmas arrives on his sleigh at 1pm. Also on the agenda are the Glorious 17th Tonbridge Scouts and Guides marching band; the Hartley Morris Men; a tribute to Busby Berkeley, a circus show and carol singing before the Christmas lights will be “magically” switched on at 4.30pm.
Each year the event, which does not have an admission fee, raises enough to pay for the following year’s Christmas lights. It is organised by a committee of three, but Mr Gillim said, half the village turns out to help.