Final preparations are being made for a free festival celebrating a traditional English fruit today, Saturday.

Members of Blackburn with Darwen Food Alliance are behind the National Apple Day fun at Corporation Park from noon until 3pm.

Annie Collier, a food alliance coordinator, told the Lancashire Telegraph earlier this month: “It’s going to be a really lovely, sharing community event."

The event will include foraging, apple games, apple bobbing, a treasure hunt, hot food, apple achar pickle tasting, printmaking, herbal remedies, and visitors will even be able to press their own juice through an apple press.

The event was originally due to be held tomorrow, Sunday, but was switched to today as poor weather was forecast in a day's time.

Cherry Tree Beekeepers will have a stall at the event. Blackburn Library will have a stall all about apples, Maggie’s Stillbirth Legacy will be doing leaf crafts, Rachael Mills and Judy will have a crochet workshop and Revidge Allotments will have a tools/pruning workshop.

This is the second annual Apple Day Festival, and the alliance is hoping to make it an annual occurrence.

The event will allow people to try different forms and varieties of apples, with members of the community bringing apples from their allotments and gardens.

Part of the alliance's aim is to offer support and advice for people about healthy eating and lifestyles, helping Blackburn to become a place where eating, cooking, growing and accessing good food is open to all.

Annie added: “A lot of people might eat apple in a purée form or as an apple pie with a lot of sugar, so actually tasting what different apples taste like is a really good brain connector to get people to understand different textures and flavours and what different things can be used for.”