A VARIETY of activities will mark Yorkshire Day at a host of venues across the Bradford district.

Visitor Information Centres in Bradford, Saltaire, Haworth and Ilkley will all be holding a wide variety of events at their sites to celebrate Yorkshire Day on Friday.

Each venue will have a selection of free food tasters, including Wensleydale Cheese, for people to taste to promote the county.

A Yorkshire-themed quiz and a craft activity to make a Yorkshire white rose will also take place at the sites.

All centres will be open between 10am and 5pm on the day, except Ilkley which is open from 9.30pm to 4.30pm.

The event in Ilkley will also feature new town cryer Isabel Hogan.

Rachel Oxborough, Visitor Information Centre manager at all four branches, says the county has been given even more of a boost by the Grand Depart of the Tour de France earlier this month.

She said: "It's one of those events where people can celebrate all things Yorkshire.

"People have quite a strong identity to Yorkshire. They are very proud to come from here.

"People who come from overseas who have family connections to Yorkshire look to take something with the Yorkshire rose on it.

"The Tour de France has really raised the profile of Yorkshire. A lot more people know where it is now.

"Lots of people come from all over the country. We have a lot of visitors from Japan and the USA coming for the Bronte connections.

"Yorkshire Day has been going for about 30 or 40 years, it's one of those things that keeps building each year."

Meanwhile, Jacobs, Kent Street in Bradford will kickstart the Yorkshire Day celebrations on Friday with an eight-day Yorkshire beer festival.

A total of 25 real ales from the county will be available, priced £2.50 per pint.

A Yorkshire Day dinner will be held at Napoleons Casino and Restaurant, Bolton Road, Bradford on Friday, raising funds for Yorkshire Air Ambulance. For tickets, priced £25 each, call 01274 391820.

A fundraising Yorkshire Day dinner dance will be held at the Dubrovnik Hotel in Bradford from 7pm. All proceeds from the event will go to the Bradford Crocus Cancer Appeal.

A business networking event at Forsters Bistro and Deli in City Park, Bradford will mark the big day from 6.30pm.

In Ilkley, the Bandstand on The Grove will mark the opening of the Ilkley Summer Festival followed by the Yorkshire Day Declaration. The events will follow a guided walk by the Friends of Ilkley Moor, starting at the Cow and Calf, Hangingstone Road at 10am.

Keighley will mark the day with activities at Central Hall, Alice Street, from 12.30pm to 3pm, including a bouncy castle and an arts and crafts corner, in which people can make paper roses to spell out the word Yorkshire.