The countryside comes to Ely Cathedral tomorrow for the annual harvest festival weekend.

Sheep, chickens, farm machinery and food and flower displays will take centre stage within 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.

The theme this year is harvest past, present and future to mark the centenary of NFU Cambridgeshire.

Sheep supplied by farmers Mark Drew and Frances Cook, from Rampton, will be taking temporary home inside the cathedral, along with chickens provided by Westmoor House smallholding, near Littleport.

There will also be an Allis-Chalmers Model B tractor, dating back to the 1940s.

Alongside the displays there will also be photographs of farm scenes from the 1960s and free recipe booklets to take away.

Organisations taking part this year include Cambridgeshire Beekeepers, the Farmland Museum at Denny Abbey, G’s Growers at Barway, Farming And Countryside Education, and the National Institute of Agricultural Botany.

Many other farm businesses are donating produce for a display celebrating 100 years of growing.

Events kick off at 6.45pm on Friday with harvest supper in the Lady Chapel, followed by musical entertainment by the Ely Imps and Kings Voices from Cambridge.

Tickets cost £10 for adults and £5 for children under 12 and are available from the Ely Cathedral box office on 01353 660349.

The harvest festival exhibition is open from 10am-5pm on Saturday and 12.30-4pm on Sunday, the start of the harvest songs of praise service.

Admission to the cathedral is free on both days. On Saturday, visitors can enjoy a piano recital by Matthew McCombie at 1.10pm.

Ely Cathedral is asking for donations of non-perishable food items this year, which will be donated to Ely Foodbank, while perishable items will be sold for charity at 10am on Monday.

Charities supported by the harvest festival weekend this year are Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire Rural Support Group and the Foodbank.