A celebration of all things Yorkshire will get Ilkley Summer Festival under way on Saturday.

Proud Yorkshiremen and women, and maybe one or two offcumdens who have made the region their home, will gather outside the town hall at 11am to mark the day, and the beginning of the festival month.

The Yorkshire Day Declaration will again be read by Ilkley’s town crier, followed by the customary singing of Yorkshire – and Ilkley – anthem, On Ilkley Moor Baht’At.

Ilkley’s Yorkshire Day celebrations are growing every year. The second junior town crier competition will start the day’s events, though, taking place at the Town Hall at 10am.

The Clifton and Lightcliffe Band will strike up in the Winter Garden after the declaration, where the traditional skills of pastry and chutney makers will also be put to the test. There will be a competition for the best Yorkshire chutney, Yorkshire hat and a novel contest to a design a Yorkshire pasty.

A 2pm, the Penny Plain Theatre Company will perform at the bandstand on The Grove.

A Festival Tea Dance will take place in the Clarke Foley Centre, Cunliffe Road, on Yorkshire Day, from 1pm to 4pm. Live music will be performed by The New Horizons Dance Band, and solo tenor Michael Loftus.

Admission to the dance costs £6 and will include Strawberry Tea.

Festival-goers will have the chance to see art depicting scenes from Wharfedale on Yorkshire Day. Work by acclaimed Ilkley artist Graeme Willson will be on display all day in Christchurch, The Grove.

Bringing Yorkshire Day to a close will be the Friends of the King’s Hall’s Grand Northern Variety Show. Headline act will be comedian and former Crackerjack presenter Bernie Clifton.

He will be supported by banjo player Steve Galler, Irish comedian Dusty Young, actor, singer and performer Caroline Fields, Paul Derek with his amazing performing birds and young dancers from the SLP college.

The chairman for the evening will be Ian Shuttleworth, and music will be provided by the City Varieties Orchestra, conducted by David Smith.

All variety show ticket holders are invited to the official reception in the Winter Garden for complementary drinks before the show, from 6.45pm.