Category: Festivals

Thank you to the following people who donated items for the tombola at the recent beer and cider festival: Pete Gardener, Andy Stephens, John Silburn, Steve Cook, Josh Jepson, Malcolm Dixon, Alan Gibbons, Lewis and Trevor from the Kelham Island Tavern, Reet Ale Pubs, Diane and Duncan from the Fat Cat, Rob Carroll, Dave Pickersgill,. Kate at the Three Tuns, Andy and Julie Lee,  all those who donated anonymously by leaving items on the tombola during the festival and anyone we have forgotten.  Cheers. Andy Morton

Over the last few issues of Beer Matters, we have featured some of the volunteer staff roles at our Steel City Beer & Cider Festival. We are looking for as many of our members to help out as possible and the staffing form is now live on our website – sheffield.camra.org.uk. We’ve also mentioned sponsorship, corporate support and hospitality  – there are still some opportunities available – get in touch if you are interested in promoting your business at the festival. So we now turn to look at what is on offer for guests visiting the festival… The festival is split into various areas. Once you have passed the entry desk (where you pay your admission and pick up your glass) the choice is: Upper Hall – featuring the main real ale and cider bars, cold food stalls, CAMRA merchandise stall and the live music stage. Victorian Courtyard – featuring the hot food stalls and outdoor drinking area all atmospherically themed. Millowners Pub – a replica of a traditional local pub with local breweriana on display and a working bar featuring around 6 real ales. Marquee – the other main beer bar can be found here along with the CAMRA membership stall, games and seating. River Don Beam Engine Hall – additional indoor space is available for visitors here in the event of bad weather and on the Friday afternoon hopefully the museum staff will fire the steam powered beam engine up for a demonstration!

As we get close to festival day, plans are starting to come together and we are able to share some of them in Beer Matters! This is a festival that began as a CAMRA campaigning initiative to help pubs in the area promote themselves and get the local beer scene growing. A few years down the line now it has grown into a big, popular event. The 2015 festival takes place on Saturday 6th June across 18 venues. A free bus service runs linking all the venues together on three routes, all of which start from Dronfield railway station. Therefore you can get the train to Dronfield then pick up the festival bus, hopping on and off at each venue to experience what each has to offer, with locations including town centre, suburban and rural providing as much variety as the lists of beers, foods and bands! As well as the bus service being free of charge, entry to all the venues is free as well, so you just pay for your food and drink, making it an excellent value for money day out. Barlow Brewery – beer tent featuring a range of real ales from Barlow Brewery – Hot food provided by Moss Valley Fine Meats – Bands in the farmyard ————————————————————– Castle Inn – Extended beer range including brewery showcase bar outside – Live music with Twelve Strings – Chef Jamie Bosworth’s gourmet American style burgers ————————————————————- Coach & Horses – garden bar as well as normal pub bar – beers featured from the likes of Thornbridge, Magic Rock, Squark and Brooklyn. – Proper cider will be available. – Outside will be a marquee and live music from 3pm featuring some great local talent from singer/songwriter to lively folk finishing with Solar Funk “Sax-led funky tunes, sizzling swing, full on funk” – traditional outdoor games including a coconut shy! – Food will be served all day, Chariots Kitchen will be running a BBQ featuring locally sourced burgers and sausages and their own marinated chicken. Additionally there will be a salad bar. ————————————————————- Dronfield Arms – Outside bar – range of real ales from RAW Brewery plus guests – Hot food provided by Cow Boys Burgers – Live music on the outdoor stage in conjunction with Honey Bee Blues Club ——————————————————— Green Dragon – open from 11.30am  to 1am – Music from 2pm – 12am, featuring Tommy Jones playing Acoustic, local band The Score,  rocking it out and our resident singer Emma Rossi with music and song to dance the night away. – Large outside bar and 2 indoor bars featuring  10 cask ales from  – Abbeydale Moonshine, Bradfield Farmers Blonde, Black Sheep and The Reverend James and all our regular lagers .  Outside bar serving a selection of 6 cask ales from Copper Dragon and Dancing Duck Breweries plus cider – Aspells, Stowford press, Skorpian Black cider – Food available – curry from the Mint Leaf from 2pm and speciality burgers in the evening from Bradway Meats – 3  heated marquees with plenty of seating and cover for those annoying spring showers ————————————————————- Hyde Park Inn – Outside Bar – 14 real ales and 5 ciders across the two bars – BBQ until 9:30pm (or until food stocks sells out!) – Live Music performed outside: 2-5pm Colleens Fancy (folk);  6-9pm The Cannons ( Irishmusic) Sean cannon is the lead singer from the Dubliners ————————————————————- Jolly Farmer – extended beer and cider range, served from a glass fronted cellar – BBQ – Normal food service also in operation ————————————————————- Manor House Hotel – Themed Beer Festival tent with Real Ales from Abbeydale Brewery – I ♥ Ostrich cooking up superb burgers, fries and other street food – Music in the afternoon (3.30 ish start) on the outside patio from Sam Wain, a jazz/blues/boogie-woogie pianist & singer. – full normal bar and dining service inside hotel – quality hotel accommodation available with special festival rates ———————————————————— Miners Arms (Dronfield Woodhouse) – Malt Whisky festival – real ale – food ————————————————————– Miners Arms (Hundall) – Pictish Brewery showcase in main pub – 10 guest ales outside in inflatable pub – Street food from Deli-licious including pulled pork sandwiches and burgers. – Live music: 1-4pm JACKSON, 4:30-6:30pm Russ & Andy, 7-10pm Blind Fever ————————————————————- Royal Oak – Patio at rear served by temporary cellar bar with additional guest beers ————————————————————- Shepley Spitfire – Outside bar with a wide range of guest beers – bar meals ————————————————————- Talbot Arms – Beers from Brampton Brewery – Cider – Themed event – “Soul” – Live music –  ‘The G Men’ and ‘Jack of Harps & The Dealers’ – Soul Food – 10% discount on pints of real ale for CAMRA members (show membership card when ordering) ————————————————————– Three Tuns – up to 36 different beers and 16 ciders & perries available – Pizzas made fresh to order, hog roast and lamb kebabs – Live music – J33 Big Band, Dronfield Band and Blind Badger ————————————————————- Tickled Trout – festival tent behind pub – extended beer range – snacks – live music the festival begins at the Tickled Trout on Friday night, however note the buses are Saturday only. ————————————————————- Travellers Rest plans still to be announced – however expect a large range of beers and ciders, live music and food. Victoria plans still to be announced ———————————————————— White Swan – Cider festival – BBQ – Live music

The 41^st Steel City Beer Festival planning continues apace with planning across a variety of areas happening all at once and being co-ordinated and taken forward at monthly meetings (see Beer Matters diary section for upcoming meetings, all volunteers welcome). The festival involves a myriad of tasks outside of just location, equipment, beer and staffing, such as sponsorship, publicity and entertainment. This years entertainment is already starting to come together and looking really good. On Thursday upstairs we have 2 sets from 9pm form Leeds City Stompers ared hot blues band, conjuring the spirit of prohibition America who headlined the acoustic stage on Friday at Europe’s biggest blues festival in Colne last year. With real 1920s drum kits, slapped double bass, metal resonator guitars from the 1930s and three voices—“making old sounds in a new way” we are really looking forward to hearing them at this years festival. On Friday night from 9pm the Downtown Roots will be taking to the stage. If you are luck enough to have seen them play in Sheffield already you will already know they have gained an enthusiastic following in a very short time and are now plying their musical wares up and down the country and getting the same response. With Pete Botterill, Bass, and James ‘Skinny’ Darnill, Drums, providing a solid rhythm section, Moz Casserly weaves his guitar with the ability of the some of the guitar greats they will bring their psychedelic tinged, Blues Rock to the festival to create a truly memorable evenings musical entertainment. Saturday afternoon between 2pm and 4pm sees the welcome return of Loxley Silver Band, established in 1889 in Loxley Methodist Church and rehearsing there until very recently, the band has a friendly family atmosphere with players ranging from 10-80 years. Last year saw the band celebrate their 125^th anniversary and they recorded a CD, which is now available to buy. Loxley were also asked to help a Cornwall-based folk-rock band called ‘Love Street’ and played on their hit single “Susanna”, which is all about the Sheffield Pals regiment and their ultimate sacrifice in WW1. An EP including this single is also available, with part of the proceeds going to The Royal British Legion. Look out in future Beer Matters for details of Saturday nights band as well as something different for the afternoon entertainment. www.leedscitystompers.com @LCStompers https://www.facebook.com/TheDowntownRoots @DowntownRoots www.loxleysilverband.og.uk @LoxleyBand

The Beer Festival Planning Committee are pleased to be able to report that the budget for this year’s festival has been approved and it will be from the 21st to 24th of October back at Kelham Island Museum. Planning has already commenced and various posts filled, however any additional help and input is always welcome (dates of meetings can be found in the Diary section at the back of Beer Matters). One area we are looking for is Bar Managers and Deputy Bar Managers so anyone potentially interested in this should contact us to find out more.  Finding people now gives plenty of time to train them in the role. We will also soon be starting to approach people about sponsorship so again if you want to help in this, or know anyone who might want to be a sponsor please get in touch.  E-mail us at festival@sheffieldcamra.org.uk, come to a meeting and follow us on twitter (@scbf41) to keep up to date.