It’s time to ‘Celebrate Blackburn’!

Blackburn’s community festival, ‘Celebrate Blackburn’, started this week and this year it’s even bigger and better.

In fact the theme for this year’s Celebrate is all BIG!

Celebrate Blackburn’s BIG festival is taking place for two months and will feature a host of larger than life music, arts, food, cultural, fun and sporting events all dedicated to showcasing the best of Blackburn.

The showpiece of the celebration will be Blackburn’s BIG weekend, from July 23.

This will feature a full programme of events including: The Big Sing, with Blackburn people’s choir, The Big Picture, children’s pavement drawing event, The Big Curry, outdoor curry festival, The Big Bubble, where the town will be invaded by bubbles, The Big Performance, where performers and entertainers take to the town’s streets and the Big Night Out, 'On the Rocks' music festival.

'On the Rocks' will feature two nights of free live music featuring critically acclaimed artists and DJs, playing across Blackburn town centre in an eclectic mix of venues including, Blackburn Library, King Georges Hall, bars, pubs and clubs.

Celebrate Blackburn is all about celebrating your life, your town, and your community.

The festival will also provide the backdrop for The Jane Tomlinson Pennine Lancashire 10k, on Sunday July 11, and the Blackburn Town Centre Grand Prix cycle road race, on Wednesday July 21.

Other exciting events taking place throughout the festival include the BIG experiment, children’s science activity, BIG playground, including a beach on King William Street, a BIG fiver fest, with special £5 deals in local shops, cafes, restaurants and businesses, a BIG chilli cook-off in Fleming Square, Blackburn's first farmers markets, the ‘Play Me, I’m Yours’ project, which will see pianos places in unusual places across the borough for people to play, a series of children's outdoor theatre on the Cathedral grounds, the BIG Flash Mob, a spontaneous dance spectacle and the BIG tidy-up, England’s biggest ever litter pick up comes to Blackburn.

Keep an eye on www.blackburn.gov.uk/celebrate-blackburn  and visit www.visitblackburn.co.uk  for a full programme of events, dates and times.