ORGANISERS of the Pershore Plum Festival are today celebrating after scooping a top award for excellence.

The festival started with the Plum Blossom Sunday on July 3 when this year’s Plum Princess was crown and culminated in a grand finale over the August Bank Holiday weekend with the Pershore Plum Fayre on Monday August 29.

It was shortlisted for the 2016 Visit Worcestershire Awards for Excellence (run by Herefordshire and Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce) in the Best Festival and Events (Community) category.

At an awards ceremony on Tuesday September 20 staged at Eastnor Castle near Ledbury, the plum festival pipped the Upton Blues Festival, the Malvern Festival of Innovation and the Tenbury Mistletoe Festival to take the coveted prize.

Chairman of the Pershore Plum Festival and Wychavon Tourism Officer Angela Tidmarsh said: “We are absolutely thrilled and delighted for everybody who has been involved.”

She said the festival was enjoyed by all sections of the community and had benefitted many charitable causes e.g. the Midlands Air Ambulance Charity which profited from the Bike Night on Thursday August 25.

She said this year’s event had been a massive success with extra features such as links to the heritage of plums in Pershore and the part they played in feeding troops in World War One; the discovery of the 1899 Pershore Plum steam train nameplate; and the entrance of mascot Eggbert the Pershore yellow egg plum who has stolen the heart of Prunella.

The whole community embraced the festival and the Bank Holiday weekend was blessed with warm sunny weather which brought out the crowds, including many wearing purple. Some people even brought their pets donning purple ribbons, she added.

“The family fun day on the Sunday was great and the Plum Plodders 10k race was booked up well in advance. The town trails also proved very popular. The sponsored were really delighted with it, but we can always do with more sponsors.”

Mrs Tidmarsh explained that the festival had enjoyed a purple patch in 2011, 2012 and 2013 when it took the best community festival and events award.

“We were banned from entering the following year and last year we were highly commended.”

She said after years of building up the festival, it is now a matter of sustaining it, although she admitted they have lots of ideas for the future.

The Pershore Plum Festival dates back to 1920 when it formed part of the town’s flower show. A poster advertising the event that year described it as “The Largest Plum Show on Earth”.

Today Pershore is recognised as the plum capital of the world and celebrated for one of the wackiest events in the calendar, where characters like the Plum Charmer serenades the fruit trees to produce a fine bumper crop, the Plum Princess and her attendants in all their finery are the toast of the town together with Queen Victoria and Prunella plus new arrival Eggbert add their own brand of fun.