Congratulations are in order as the famous Burnham Food and Drink Festival has reached the final stage in the Countryside Alliance Awards.

The town's twice yearly event made it through a difficult shortlisting process to the Rural Oscars, after the success of the day back in October.

The local festival is competing in the Tourism Enterprise category against nine other businesses from across England and Wales for the Championship title.

More than 3,500 nominations were made by the public in the four different categories.

The awards were set up eleven years ago to offer a voice and a platform for our rural businesses and are a true celebration of the the British countryside.

The next stage is a visit from the panel of judges in January and the awards are announced at a reception at the House of Lords on April 27 2016.

Festival director, Sarah Milner Simonds, said: "We admire the Countryside Alliance and to have been shortlisted from such a large number of nominations is humbling.

"It is one of our aims to create a year round boost to the rural businesses that take part in the festivals and build on the regular footfall to the town by introducing new people to it's charms.

"We offer our congratulations to the other shortlisted finalists and we are looking forward to meeting the judges in January."

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, but don’t seek the spotlight.

"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."