MORECAMBE is about to fillet Blackpool pretensions to claim the title of fish and chip capital for Britain.

Morecambe and Heysham will hold the the First Great British Fish & Chip feast during the weekend of June 24 and 25.

And a Blackpool newspaper is taking the challenge seriously, reporting that the resorts are 'squaring up in a chippy battle.'

"It just proves that the traditional rivalry between the resorts lives on," said Lancaster council tourism officer Ron Sands.

Built around the fish and chip theme will be a host of other entertainments and events which aim to provide an intensive evocation and recreation of Morecambe and Heysham's heyday. The mouthwatering menu will include plentiful performances of traditional pierrots; Punch and Judy, variety shows featuring tributes to comic legends of the seaside stage and a classic cuts picture house. The main venues will be linked by two 50-yxear-old vintage coaches staffed by conductors with old time uniforms and ticket machines.

It's just one of a number of quality tourism events being planned this millennium year. Lancaster will be staging:

Easter Maritime Festival - April 21 to 24. A regular event on the quayside it has established itself as one of the world's biggest gatherings of sea-song and shanty performers.

Summer Georgian Festival Fair and National Sedan Chair Carrying Championships - Bank Holiday, Monday, August 28. An elaborate recreation of an 1807 fair.

a Jacobite Day - Friday, November 24. Celebrations of the 1745 invasion by Bonnie Prince Charlie's army.

There will also be a November Fireworks Spectacular and beacon lighting, year round old calendar walks, and discovery tours and guided walks including, 'Echoes of Art Deco', 'The Sunderland Point Excursion' and 'Ghosts and Murderers.' See the Citizen each week for details.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.