Every year, Welston greets the Summer Solstice with the sort of determination usually reserved for queueing during a hosepipe ban or securing the final parking space outside The Station. This year’s festivities fall on the 21st of June and, once again, the town intends to remain awake for as much of it as humanly possible.

Proceedings begin at the Bookish Barista, where the annual Solstice Games Night will unfold across several increasingly competitive tables of cards, dominos and board games. Susan Crow, who hosts the evening, maintains that the event is intended to celebrate community spirit. Others maintain it is primarily an endurance test involving caffeine.

As sunrise approaches, the hardiest survivors usually make the barefoot climb up Croppers Hill to greet the dawn from the castle ruins overlooking the sea. According to local folklore, walking through midsummer dew brings good health and good fortune. Last year, however, several participants embraced the tradition with rather too much enthusiasm, resulting in what one witness later described as “competitive dew rolling” and a regrettable incident involving a gorse bush.

For those unwilling to tackle the hill before breakfast, Susan thoughtfully projects British Heritage’s livestream of the Stonehenge sunrise across the sanctum’s double doors. While perhaps lacking the spiritual majesty of the real thing, it does at least allow viewers to remain seated with a pastry.

The morning will conclude, as tradition apparently demands, with the arrival of the Lanston Morris Men, who once again plan to welcome the longest day with bells, sticks and an alarming amount of enthusiasm. Local opinion remains divided on whether the performance is an important midsummer custom or something that should require a Health and Safety risk assessment. Last year’s display was briefly interrupted when Eric Porter’s Tiny 2, the Slippery Eel’s resident bull mastiff, escaped with one of the dancers’ handkerchiefs and led half the troupe towards the mud flats while still jingling enthusiastically.

Later, the annual Lanston v Welston next the Sea Solstice Test Match returns once more. Play begins promptly at six in the evening and continues until sunset, assuming morale, stamina and hamstrings hold out. Last year’s match lasted three hours and twenty-two minutes, ending when Lanston’s opening batsman attempted what he later called “an ambitious tactical sprint” and what everybody else recognised as falling over near square leg.