The Essex Sausage and Cider Festival will take place, but security checks have been increased.

The popular festival, taking place this weekend at Barleylands, in Billericay, is taking the action following the bombing in Manchester on Monday and the subsequent announcement that the UK's threat level has been raised.

Measures being taken at the festival include increased security presence, increased security checks on entry, during and exiting the event and specialist security bomb detection dog will be on site throughout the festival.

A spokesman said: "Due to the nature of the increased checks you may find entry and exit into the event may take longer than usual so please bear with us and we'll do our best to get everyone in quickly whilst maintaining the highest level of security.

"Please be assured you are in safe hands as our security team SAUK provide security to much larger music festivals, sky sports events and premiere league football matches.

"We hope you have a great time this weekend as its set to be a beautiful weekend, please feel free to contact us at any time regarding security."