Fine food, drink and entertainment including live music will be on show in Ramsbottom this weekend for the launch of a new festival. 

Ramsbottom Rotary club member Jim Hurst said he had the idea to bring an event to the town after visiting a food festival in Clitheroe last August.

Planning started in September, and after months of organising, more than 80 stalls of food, drink, crafts and more delights will be on display on Saturday and Sunday for the first ever Ramsbottom Festival.

Stalls will be set up across three sites, the civic hall, Nuttall Park and along Silver Street, Square Street and Smithy Street, which will be closed.

On Friday evening, The Vineyard will be hosting a summer wine festival in the civic hall where there will be over 70 wines to sample.

On Saturday night, a concert will be held with various performers, including comic Chris Britten, singers Les Stevens, Sarah Dennis and Simon Case and burlesque performer and compere Trixie Blue.

On Sunday, classic cars will be lined up on Railway Street, and across the weekend in Nuttall Park there will be a fairground, axe throwing, a dog show and the White Rose Yorkshire Steampunks will be entertaining the audience.

Jim said: “We're doing things we’ve never done before. With this event we wanted to take the whole town over and it's fantastic.

“We don’t want Ramsbottom town centre to die, we just want to give the town a lift and there’s a tremendous appetite for it.”

Ramsbottom Rotary is also open to receiving new members and are open for anyone who wants to join.

Although the event is a rotary event, organisations like Ramsbottom Events Group, Friends of Nuttall Park and Ramsbottom Civic Pride have been helping to prepare as well as support from the festival sponsors Orbital and ISM.

Jim added: “It’s going to be fantastic, we just need some nice weather now!”