Sheep, a vintage tractor and spectacular food and flower displays will feature inside the Cathedral as the NFU links up with local organisations and companies to showcase the wide variety and high quality of produce grown in the Fens.
And this year’s event will feature displays outside the Cathedral on the Saturday as well, including an irrigator used for watering potatoes and advice and information on saving water from Anglian Water. It all ties in with this year’s festival theme - the Water of Life - highlighting the vital role water pays in growing our food.
NFU County Chairman Bob Lawrence said: “This event is always a fantastic shop window for food and farming and it promises to be better than ever this year.
“We’re looking forward to a busy weekend celebrating the very best of farming and growing in Cambridgeshire in the spectacular surroundings of Ely Cathedral.”
Sheep supplied by farmers Mark Drew and Frances Cook from Rampton, Cambridgeshire will be taking temporary home inside the Cathedral, along with an Allis-Chalmers Model B tractor, dating back to the 1940s.
There will be a water-themed floral arrangement prepared by the Cathedral Flower Guild and a special children’s trail arranged by the Cathedral’s education team.
There will be activities for children in the Lady Chapel on the Saturday as well, including potato printing and decorating.
Organisations taking part include Cambridgeshire Beekeepers, the Farmland Museum at Denny Abbey, G’s Growers at Barway, Tompsett Burgess Growers, Rampton Spinners and Cambridge-based research organisation NIAB.
Events get underway at 7pm on Friday 13 October with a harvest supper in the Lady Chapel, including musical entertainment. Tickets cost £10 for adults and £5 for children under 16 and they are available from the Ely Cathedral box office on 01353 660349.
The harvest festival exhibition is open from 10am to 5pm on Saturday 14 October and 12.30pm to 4pm on Sunday 15 October, the start of the Harvest Songs of Praise service. Admission to the Cathedral is free on both days.
On Monday 16 October the best of the produce will be sold off at 9.30am, with money raised going to this year’s chosen charity, the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution. Produce will be donated to the Food Bank as well.