'Families have been coming in their droves' as a mixed bag of sunshine and rain is forecasted for the final day of the Balmoral Show

Northern Ireland’s largest agricultural event, pictured, draws to a close on Saturday, bringing an end to a busy and entertaining four days at Balmoral Park in Lisburn.

RUAS group operations director Rhonda Geary says families have been attending the show “in their droves” as they aim to provide “a really good finale”.

She added: “It's our championship day for all our various sections, culminating with our parade of prize-winning cattle in the afternoon, and then our champion of champions when they all go head-to-head in a competition judged this year by Julian Simmons.

“We also have a mascot race, a competition that's grown in popularity from year to year.

"We can have up to 40 mascots from various companies racing against each other in our main arena.”

But what the weather be like? “There will be clouds moving in overnight on Friday but Saturday will still be a dry start to the morning but it will be a cold 4 or 5C when people wake up,” senior meteorologist Greg Dewhurst explained.

"The clouds will then bring a band of light rain from around 9-11am but that may dry up for a spell before lunch. But that will quickly change as another band of rain will make an appearance, so it looks like it will unfortunately be a wet afternoon at the Balmoral Show.

"Hopefully the rain should clear up by 4 or 5pm but some of the showers could be heavy.

"Then it looks like it’ll be a mixture of sunshine and showers for the rest of the evening onwards.

"The maximum temperature will be around 12C.”

The top temperatures at Balmoral this week have been 10C on Wednesday, with 12C also recorded on Thursday and Friday.

Looking further into the weekend, Mr Dewhurst added: “Sunday will have a mixed bag of sunny spells and showers, which could be heavy in places.”