Weird Summer Weather Means Plentiful Plums for UK’s 25th Annual Plum Festival
Held in the Worcestershire market town of Pershore, the UK’s plum epicentre, this year’s British Plum Festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a huge harvest of plums. Thanks to the wet summer, the plum harvest looks set to be a bumper one with scores of different varieties to tempt festival goers taste buds including three named after Pershore itself – the Pershore Purple, the Pershore Yellow Egg and the Pershore Emblem.
Plums are so central to the heritage of the town that on Bank Holiday Sunday, Pershore Abbey holds a Plum Praise Service which includes the presentation of a Pound of Pershore Purple Plums – a tradition dating back over 50 years. In 1970, the church of St Andrews in Pershore was declared redundant following which a formal agreement was drawn up between the Diocese of Worcester and Pershore Abbey. It was agreed that an annual payment of a Pound of Pershore Plums be made by the Pershore Parochial Church to the Diocese as a “peppercorn rent” for St Andrews centre.
Plum Festival celebrations have been taking place throughout August, but everything culminates over the Bank Holiday weekend with a three-day extravaganza throughout Pershore. Kicking off on Saturday 26th August, thousands of people will descend on the town to enjoy plum-themed food and drink, an old-fairground, a free big screen cinema and endless live entertainment plus new for this year, the cookery and gardening demonstration marquee including MasterChef champion Mark Stinchcombe and local gardening celebrity, Reg Moule.
Sunday’s Family Fun Day includes a Plum Pooches Dog Show, drumming workshops, escape rooms and a host of other purple entertainment. On the Bank Holiday Monday, the day begins with a spectacular plum procession headed by Trevor Harrison (aka Eddie Grundy from Radio 4’s The Archers) who will recite his own ode to the Pershore Plum.
To find out about the plum festival in its entirety, why not visit www.pershoreplumfestival.org.uk
