Tonight from 2130 the sky over Cowes will host what is widely considered to be the very best of the summer season’s firework displays in the UK.

Preceded by a bangers and mash party at the Royal London Yacht Club, the event is not to be missed. The display is organised by Cowes Combined Clubs and after a successful change in supplier last year to Kimbolton Fireworks, another spectacular show is anticipated.

Kimbolton is the last remaining manufacturer of display fireworks in the UK and its other credits include the 1995 VJ display on the Thames and the Hong Kong handover display.

The Skandia Cowes Week fireworks evening attracts, on average, a staggering 170,000 people, making it second only to the Edinburgh Hogmanay celebrations. The fireworks can be seen from miles around from Poole in the west to Chichester in the East.

The best vantage points for those on the shore are the eastern end of Castle Hill, Cowes Parade, Princes Green, East Cowes Esplanade and the grounds of Northwood House. An accompanying sound track can be heard via loadspeakers on the waterfront and also on Cowes Radio on 106.2FM.

Out on the water a large fleet of leisure craft can be expected to anchor in Cowes Roads; the Red Funnel fast Red Jet services are suspended for the duration of the event, one of the very few occasions in the year that they do not plough their hourly furrows back and forwards from Southampton.

For more information pick up the Skandia Cowes Week Entertainments Guide available at most shops, Tourist Information Centres or from the Parade.