A MONTH-LONG of all things plum will continue as Pershore prepares to play host to the first ever National Plum Day and celebrate the 90th birthday of one of its biggest supporters.
The town centre will come to life today (Saturday) for the inaugural event which is being held at the halfway point of August’s Pershore Plum Festival, which has seen hundreds of visitors to the town find out more about Pershore’s famous fruit.
And the first-ever National Plum Day will have Pershore at the heart its celebrations with music, activities and, of course, the opportunity to try as many different plum varieties as you’re likely to find.
Crowds will also celebrate the 90th birthday of Henry Sandon MBE, national treasure and former presenter on The Antiques Roadshow who has been a long-time supporter of the festival and organisers will make a ‘major’ presentation to the popular TV star.
The festival celebrates the town’s long association with plums of all varieties becoming a sea of purple and yellow to reflect the colours of its two most famous plums – the Pershore Purple and the Pershore Yellow Egg Plum.
The month-long event culminates over the August Bank Holiday weekend and thousands of residents and visitors are expected to flock to the host of free activities.
Live music will be on offer every Saturday this month while Growers United will take to the field on Saturday, August 25 to tackle a team of Mancheter City Legends in a charity challenge at Pershore Town’s King George Field’s ground.
Among the names lining up for City during the Plum Football Festival will be Ian Brightwell, Jim Whitley and former Scotland defender Colin Hendry.
Now one of the biggest events on the town’s calendar, the festival was resurrected back in 1996 in an attempt to recreate the success of the Pershore Flower Show.
In its heyday in the 1920s, the flower show was known as the ‘largest plum show on Earth.’
Nearly 100 years later the plum festival the event is in its 22nd year and will also celebrate the 191st anniversary of the discovery of the yellow egg plum, found in Tyddesley Wood by George Crooke in 1827.
Visit www.pershoreplumfestival.org.uk for all the latest on the event.
