The Burnham on Sea Food and Drink Festival organisers, Bev & Sarah Milner Simonds, are hoping to be celebrating on Wednesday April 27 when they take a trip to the House of Lords for the "Rural Oscars".

The festival is shortlisted in the Countryside Alliance Awards, aka the #RuralOscars, for their contribution to Tourism in the region. They are competing against opposition from across the UK in these prestigious awards that seek to celebrate those who contribute to the rural economy.

Co-organiser Bev Milner Simonds said: "We are honoured to have been shortlisted in these national awards and getting this far is a testament to our volunteer's professionalism, our trader's creativity and our local sponsors support enabling us to build this event into one of the region's premier celebrations of local food & drink.

"We are very pleased to be accompanied to the awards by James Heappey MP and our principle sponsor, The Retreat Caravan Park."

Countryside Alliance Awards director Jill Grieve said: “These finalists are all exceptional – we have been overwhelmed by nominations this year so for them to get this far is a huge achievement. The secret to the Rural Oscars’ popularity is that they honour the people involved in these businesses and not just their produce or services.

"They exist to sing the praises of those who work hard to keep our communities and rural economy ticking. We are delighted to offer this platform to enable people to say “thank you” to them for all they contribute.

"I wish all of these businesses well as judging gets underway, there are going to be some hard decisions ahead.”