THE sixth Big Bike Bash will be held at Avon Tyrrell Activity Centre from August 22-25.

More than 500 riders and their families attended the mountain-biking, music and real ale festival last year, raising £15,000 for the charity UK Youth.

The money has been put towards developing exciting opportunities and facilities for cyclists, young people and the local community who use the 65-acre site near Bransgore.

The Big Bike Bash is aimed at the keen mountain biker or the happy amateur and has more riders, prizes, bands and beers than ever before.

The cross-country racecourse is 5km of twisty single-track that includes water-crossings, technical sections and fast open sections.

There are extra events like malt loaf eating, pint-to-pint and a lake jump.

The weekend features live music, DJs, a beer festival and activities to keep children and non-riders entertained.

Facilities include on-site camping, bike doctors, climbing, archery, boating activities and much more.

Ticket prices for this year’s event are £60 per adult and £20 for under 18s for those who want to take part in any of the competitions. Tickets are £30 if you don’t compete. Under 5s tickets cost 1p and all ticket prices include camping. A family ticket is £120.

Profits from the 2013 event have gone into a new zero-energy lakeside boat house loo/shower block at Avon Tyrrell, due to open before the 2014 event.

If you would like to be a part of this year’s event or would like to know more about the charity UK Youth and the Avon Tyrrell venue, contact Anne or Louis on 01425 672347, email bigbikebash@ukyouth.org and visit www.bigbikebash.co.uk.

UK Youth is a leading national charity that reaches 693,000 young people every year through the largest network of youth clubs and projects.

For more than 100 years the charity has been enabling young people to learn and succeed through a range of innovative programmes to gain life skills to build confidence, resilience and make them more employable.

A spokesman said: “With almost a million under 25s unemployed today, the work we do has never been more important.

“What we do enables young people to develop the tools they need for life, work and a better future.”