AS this year’s Plum Festival draws near, it seems Pershore is not the only town crazy about the juicy fruit.

Troyan in Bulgaria is also known for the quality of its plums and hosts the Bulgarian Plum Festival twice a year.

With Pershore’s annual festival set to start on Sunday, Steve Knight, Pershore Market Town Partnership manager, was invited to travel into Europe to represent the town and see how the Bulgarians celebrate plums.

He said: “In Troyan they have two festivals over the year. I arrived in time for the start of the spring festival, an exuberant and intoxicating pre-cursor to the official plum festival that takes place later in the year, the same as ours.

“As much as I like plums, I did actually travel as an official representative of our very own Pershore Plum Festival. It was the perfect opportunity to see how they do things, but also to promote Pershore, the place and its plums.

“For the duration of my stay, I was given the full VIP treatment as a guest of honour and got to experience first-hand how Bulgarians express their passion for plums.

“This involved adopting the Bulgarian lust to drink, in moderation, the local tipple of choice, slivovitz. The local stuff is strong, especially drinking it during brunch, lunch and dinner.

“Overall, the experience was fascinating. The country is beautiful, the locals extremely pleasant, and their passion and enjoyment for the festival oozes from every member of the community.

It was the small things that to me seemed to collectively contribute to the overall ambience, and this would certainly be nice to repeat in Pershore.”

The first event of Pershore’s Plum Festival, the crowning of the Plum Princess, takes place at the Angel Hotel from 2.30pm on Sunday. Anyone aged between seven and 12 can apply by contacting Judith Synnuck at the Little Shoe Box on 01386 554397.

The month-long festival culminates with festival day on Bank Holiday Monday, August 26.