THE Force was strong with customers during a family fun day held at a DIY store in a galaxy not so far away.

Star Wars fans were drawn the to the Darlington B&Q warehouse at Morton Park for a chance to meet Chewbacca and win raffle prizes.

Younglings and Padawans were also treated to face-painting and balloons during the day which saw Darth Vader, Storm Troopers and Jedi all descend on the store.

B&Q Darlington trading manager, Dan Jobling, said: “It was a really good day and we had a lot of people who turned up just to see the guys in the Star Wars costumes.

“Everyone loved it and I think it was a good thing to do – the face painter was busy all day and we also raffled off some balloons of Darth Vader and Chewbacca.

“It started at 10am and it didn’t stop really. It’s the kind of thing we’d definitely do again because it really was fun and there were so many people just looking at what was going on.”

Speaking before Saturday’s event, B&Q Darlington store manager, Jane Benson, had said staff were also very excited to be host the Star Wars-themed day following the success of the latest film in the franchise, The Force Awakens.