Winchester Cathedral will again be the venue for a free family event to mark the Harvest Festival, this weekend (October 3 and 4) in both the Inner and Outer Cathedral Close.

Now a regular annual event, it has grown both in size and popularity, and engages with a range of local organisations involved in farming and agriculture around Hampshire.

Much of what takes place is interactive, and it all provides an opportunity both to celebrate the contribution of agriculture to the life of the county, and also to explore some of the issues which continue to be of concern in the agricultural community today.

All are welcome, and there is no charge to attend.

Some features of what will be on offer are: free entry into the Cathedral, fairground organs, Morris dancers, live music from the Winchester Music School, vintage farm machinery, mobile farm, birds of prey display, bee keeping, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance,

horse carriage rides, scarecrow competition, and children’s activities.

This is all part of the Cathedral’s own, traditional opportunity to give thanks for ‘All God’s gifts around us’, with the Cathedral Harvest Festival on the Sunday at 10am and the County Harvest Service at 3.30pm that afternoon, when the address will take the form of interviews by Alastair Stewart OBE interviewing representatives of the Hampshire agricultural community.

Between these two services, join the Dean of Winchester and special guest speaker Simon Robinson, of Hattingley Wine, for a two-course Hampshire Lunch in the Cathedral Refectory at 12.30pm. Lunch tickets are £14.95, available online from www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk or from 01962 857 275.