ANOTHER round of asparagus fun and madness is on the menu as the annual Asparafest event in the Vale of Evesham approaches.

The family friendly two-day festival on Saturday June 3 and Sunday June 4 will include music, children’s activities, food stalls, a fun fair, vintage vehicles, falconry and an asparagus eating competition.

Asparagus characters like Gus the Asparagusman and the Asparamancer, who claims to tell the future by tossing asparagus spears in the air and reading them once they’ve fallen, will be on hand to add that quirkiness everyone expects from Asparafest.

The festival will be celebrating the granting of EU protected food status to Vale of Evesham Asparagus this year, ranking it on a par with other iconic foods and drinks such as Champagne, Roquefort cheese, Parma ham and Cornish pasties.

The music line-up using two stages offers a colourful mix including premium rhythm and blues band Dr Feelgood, festival favourites 3 Daft Monkeys, Yorkshire’s comedy band The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican, The Rajasthan Heritage Brass Band plus local heroes The Peas, Tazmin Barnes and more.

CBeebies Mr Bloom will be at the festival on Saturday while children’s TV presenter Katy Ashworth will attend on Sunday. Other children’s activities include storytelling, children’s crafts, Junkfish children’s fun activities, Worcester Barn Owls, a fun fair and more.

Other entertainment includes falconry displays, duck herding, the Asparalympics, a WWII camp, zorbing, classic cars and agricultural vehicles.

For more information about all the different aspects of the festival visit http://www.asparafest.co.uk/

There will of course be plenty of asparagus to buy and eat as well as street food, real ale and cider and other foods are available from the market stalls.

Felice Tocchini, who runs Feli’s bar and restaurant at Stoulton near Worcester, will be giving cookery demonstrations on both Saturday and Sunday. He specialises in using fresh, local produce to create delicious food with an Italian twist.

Felice is passionate about local produce and spends much of his time working with growers and producers to help promote Worcestershire food and drink, especially asparagus.

Tom Court, of Sticky Fig Catering, is an award winning former head chef of many years standing with two AA rosettes to his name. Tom's demos will focus on sustainable British fish, supporting British farmers and asparagus.

There will also be demonstrations on both days from Tom Sausage - a small but expanding family company based in the Vale of Evesham making delicious sausages to order. Pork and asparagus sausages are a speciality at this time of year.

Festival organiser Tash Daly said: “Vale of Evesham asparagus has been making the news recently with lots of news and great stories. Clearly our enthusiasm for asparagus is spreading, so we are excited about Asparafest being bigger and better than ever before this year.”