THE 2012 Dorset County Show will take on a sporting theme to mark the Olympic year.

Old will meet new as extreme sport tops the bill at the traditional county celebration, which has been running since 1841.

Organisers are promising a weekend of entertainment that is not to be missed ahead of the event on the weekend of Saturday, September 1, and Sunday, September 2.

The headline act will see Scott May’s Daredevil Stunt Show boasting an array of death-defying stunts on quad bikes, motorbikes and trucks weighing up to seven tons.

Another new addition to the show will see free running, or parkour, grace the showground as Team Roar struts its stuff.

The West Country-based team of free runners will be vaulting, rolling, running, climbing and jumping over obstacles in a bid to impress the crowds as they translate their urban skills onto a rural backdrop.

A slightly more serene new addition to the weekend will see internationally-renowned cameraman and naturalist Christian Moullec on his glider above the showground accompanied by his flying geese.

To reinforce the sporting theme there will also be a spectacular show from the Kangaroos gymnastics and trampolining display team.

While exciting new displays continue to bring in a new audience, the traditional livestock categories and celebration of the county’s agriculture continue to prove as popular as ever with a record-breaking numbers of entries in a number of classes last year.

Show secretary Sam Mackenzie-Green said the sporting theme was an easy choice for organisers to make and promised the blend of events at this year’s show would provide a weekend for all to enjoy.

She said: “In the year of the UK Olympics, sport was an obvious theme for the show in 2012.

“We believe we have constructed a schedule of performances which, coupled with all the traditional attractions on show, will offer exactly the right blend of ingredients to make the Dorset County Show 2012 a weekend not to be missed.”

Adult tickets for the show cost £10 in advance or £13 on the day, with children again going free this year.

Tickets can be bought from tourist information centres across Dorset or online at dorsetcountyshow.co.uk