On a miserable, damp Sunday afternoon, children’s favourite Fireman Sam came to the rescue.

The cartoon firefighter and the rest of the crew from Pontypandy spent the afternoon preparing for the town’s first ever music festival.

The essence of the storyline was simple, the whole town had a part to play in the festival, with Station Officer Steele responsible for the special guest, Mike and Elvis had to build the stage and Bronwyn had to make six cookies for the demanding special guest who insisted they were “not too crunchy, not too chewy, with 12 chocolate chips in each”.

Most of the children seemed delighted to see the TV stars live on stage, to join in with the repetitive songs and even copy some of the dance moves, and were especially pleased to be asked to help keep the identify of the special guests (Mona Arizona incase you were wondering) a secret.

However, a few were overwhelmed by the caricature costumes and found the live version of the children’s classic just too much.

The rest of the children- and their mums, dads, grans and granddads - waited patiently for a big rescue scene, as you would expect from Fireman Sam live.

Sam and his crew were called upon to battle some smoke at the bakery and pluck Norman and Mandy to safety after they were washed out to sea in a boat, but the drama was largely played out backstage, making the show a little flat for the older children who had gone along expecting leaping flames and brave firefighters.

That said, my 21-month-old nephew George sat mesmerised throughout, in awe of the characters dancing around on stage.

And all came good in the end as Mona and the older members of the audience got the special effects they wanted.

A perfect treat for pre-school children and Fireman Sam fans.

Natalie Sadler