Events at the forthcoming Steel City Beer Festival will include a walk, a talk and a tutored tasting. Following previous successes, local author John Stocks and our Pub Heritage Officer, Dave Pickersgill will be leading a guided walk in Little Chicago on Thursday morning and staging the associated talk on Friday afternoon.
In addition, as part of their 20th anniversary celebrations, Bradfield Brewery will be leading a tutored tasting on the Thursday evening, presenting both core brews and oak-aged beers. Advance tickets for all events will be available nearer the time.
The festival is planned to take place 15-18 October at Kelham Island Museum featuring a huge range of cask ales, a selection of other craft beers in keg plus traditional ciders alongside street food vendors and a programme of live music. The special events including tutored tastings, talks and tours are optional extras to add to your festival experience!
The winter edition of the Great British Beer Festival took place in February at Magna, having relocated from Burton on Trent, conveniently replacing the old Rotherham Real Ale & Music festival which came to an end last year.
CAMRA’s Yorkshire region was originally planning on hosting the event in Bradford but the new venue there was looking like not being ready in time to host events so with 6 months to go, it was switched to Magna. The result was something slightly rough around the edges in presentation but an impressive and enjoyable event regardless.
Much of the action was in the “Big Hall” with the live music stage, main cask ales bar, cider bar, tombola, table skittles, diner, seven brewery bars (Abbeydale, Brew York, Chantry, Radio City, Tatton, Theakstons and Thornbridge) and a number of stalls including a tankard engraver and caricature artist.
There were a number of other rooms to explore too with a “Global Pours” bar in its own room serving exclusively imported beer from around the world and in the rainbow hall an Indie Brewers bar serving a varied range of cask ales only from independently owned breweries. There was also a room featuring UK craft beers in keg and a spirit bar with a range of flavoured gins, vodkas and rums.
Being a national CAMRA event it and now in a bigger venue a feature from the summer Great British Beer Festival was rolled out – the Learn & Discover bar, where the staff talked you through a number of themed tasters and each day a different brewer guested on the bar.
The Champion Winter Beer of Britain award is judged here and there was a bar dedicated to showcasing the finalists. The overall champion was Cairngorm Black Gold, a session stout, with runners up named as Sarah Hughes Snowflake (an 8% ABV barley wine) and Grain Slate (a 6% ABV porter).
The winners were announced on stage as part of the Wednesday trade session.
There were a couple of local beers judged in the final – Abbeydale Black Mass (a black IPA) came second in its category behind Sarah Hughes Snowflake whilst Acorn Gorlovka Imperial Stout came third in its category.
To help with the journey home from Magna a special festival bus service operated from the front door shuttling to Meadowhall and Rotherham, this was operated on behalf of CAMRA by Stagecoach using brand new electric buses. Next year things will be even easier with a station on the Tram Train line due to open this coming December with trams from Sheffield and Rotherham directly to Magna!
This month sees the arrival of CAMRA’s Great British Beer Festival (GBBF) Winter edition at its new home of Magna, replacing the long established Rotherham Real Ale & Music festival which took place for the last time in 2024.
The festival features a range of over 300 cask ales served on either handpump or gravity with many Yorkshire breweries represented as well as plenty from around the rest of Britain; there will also be around 35 other UK craft beers on keg, a dedicated Champion Winter Beer of Britain bar, a learn & discover zone and a world beer bar with a rotating choice of imported beers in bottle, can and keg.
There will also be brewery bars where their staff will be hosting and available to answer questions about the beers which will be served on both cask and keg. Brewers attending are Abbeydale, Brew York, Chantry, Radio City Beer Works, Wantsum, Theaksons and Thornbridge.
A number of tutored tasting events have also been organised as an optional extra, these have limited capacity and need to be booked in advance, they are led by a knowledgeable and respected host and the price includes a number of beer samples and a talk. Themes include Champion beers, beer & cheese, beer & music and beer brewed on Burton Union sets.
Cider & Perry also features on a dedicated bar curated by a team that are very enthusiastic about the real deal, so expect everything here to be made from freshly pressed apple or pear juice, never from industrial concentrate!
If you’d like to come along and enjoy the atmosphere but aren’t into beer or cider, there will also be a bar offering wine, spirits, soft drinks and no/low alcohol beer. Food will also be available with pub grub style meals available from Magna’s own catering team plus stalls selling snacks.
A busy programme of live music is planned each day and included in the ticket price, this will take place on the stage in the main hall. Rotherham CAMRA branch members will also be there hosting a tombola and old fashioned pub table top games.
The entry price includes a souvenir glass featuring the festival artwork and the sponsor, with a choice of a pint glass or stemmed half, this is yours to take home and keep. There aren’t any programmes this year but the Rotherham Cancer Care charity will be selling printed beer lists for those that want one. This year all the bars will be taking card payment (contactless or chip & pin) on a pay as you go basis, alternatively you can buy £10 beer token cards to spend at the bars, the token sales desks will accept cash.
The festival is organised and staffed by volunteers, if you fancy joining the team please fill in the volunteering form on the website.
All the information and advance tickets is available online at winter.gbbf.org.uk.
OPENING HOURS AND TICKET PRICES
Wednesday 5pm to 10:30pm (with trade tickets offering access from 4pm)
Thursday midday to 10:30pm (please be aware that a small number of bars won’t be open until 3pm)
Friday and Saturday midday to 10:30pm
Tickets on the door £10 for CAMRA members, £12 for everyone else
Advance tickets online £8 for CAMRA members, £10 for everyone else. Group and season ticket deals also available online.
Trade tickets for those working in the pub, beer and cider industry for the Wednesday session are complimentary but must be applied for in advance online.
GETTING THERE
bus X3 (Sheffield to Doncaster, operated by First) stops on Sheffield Road, behind the venue next to the pedestrian entrance which takes you through to the car park. You can board the bus at Sheffield Interchange, Meadowhall Interchange, Rotherham Interchange and Doncaster Interchange. If you are connecting with other buses in South Yorkshire an all day pass may prove good value – see sytravelmaster.com or the Travelmaster app.
If you are going by train, the nearest railway station is Meadowhall where you can jump on the X3 bus for a 5 minute ride to Magna.
From 4pm each day there will also be a special festival shuttle bus running from Meadowhall Interchange and Rotherham Interchange to supplement the X3, this will drop off (and pick up) near the festival entrance and charge a flat fare of £2.50 (other tickets and passes cannot be used). This bus will be operated by Stagecoach and generally run every 30 minutes, ending at 11pm.
Car parking is available at Magna, which is close to M1 junction 34.
LIVE MUSIC PROGRAMME(timings approximate)
WEDNESDAY EVENING:
18:30 Bone Broke Kings
19:45 Lightning Threads
21:00 The Fargo Railroad Co
THURSDAY EVENING:
19:00 Floodhounds
20:30 Northern Citizens
FRIDAY ALL DAY:
13:00 Daniel Horsham
15:30 Eboney Jayne O’Brien
17:00 Kizia and the Kings
18:30 Soul Battalion
20:30 The Leptons
SATURDAY ALL DAY:
13:00 Jack T Harper
15:00 Maltby Miners Welfare Band
17:30 Matilda Shakes
19:00 Republic
20:30 Handsome Dan and the Mavericks
TUTORED TASTING EVENTS
Champion Winter Beer of Britain competition tasting, led by Roger Protz – Wednesday 6:30pm and Thursday 2pm. Members £10, non-members £12. Six beers included.
Brewed on the Union tasting, led by Roger Protz and Thornbridge brewers – Thursday 6pm. Members £10, non-members £12.
Beer & Cheese tasting, led by Annabel Smith – Friday 2pm. Members £14, non-members £16. Five beers paired with cheese included.
Beer & Music matching, led by Pete Brown who is publishing a book on the subject – Friday 6pm. Members £10, non-members £12.
Please note the price of the tasting event tickets quoted are just for the tasting, a festival entry ticket is also required.
LEARN & DISCOVER ZONE – BREWERY PARTNERS
Themed tasting flights will be available from the Learn & Discover Zone, served in partnership with the following brewery bars:
Sheffield’s annual Beer Week has now been running 11 years, celebrating the independent beer scene in the city with events across many venues in the city with common themes of beer & food, community and heritage. The beer week itself officially runs from 10 to 16 March, preceded by the Indie Beer Feast, however there are a number of additional events to warm up in the preceding days too!
A list of events confirmed at the time of going to press are below, however for the latest information visit their website – sheffieldbeerweek.co.uk.
Thursday 6 March
Pangolin : Indie Rabble Tap Takeover and meet-the-brewer. Beers on from 1pm with the brewer there in the evening.
Friday 7 March
Hop Hideout : Tynt Meadow Trappist Brewery – keg of their Dutch brewed trio collaboration on tap with the brewery manager present to talk about their history and tradition. 2pm to 4pm.
Little Chicago Quarter pub heritage guided walk – 11:30am, booking required
Crow Inn : “A Place to Be” talk with writer Katie Mather, 2pm.
FOCUS ON…
THE CROW
All week: European Beer Showcase
A Selection of European craft Beers
Throughout the week, we will be pouring an assortment of delicious beers from some of Europe’s best breweries. We have beer from Sweden, Poland, Denmark and plenty more magical places. Come on down to get stamping your genuine real life beer passports.
Launching 8th March, pouring through beer week until we run out – Ten Men x Bang The Elephant x Steel City Brewing x The Crow Inn Presents… The Men Of Steel
Free entry
A mega collaboration beer between many of our lovely beer friends. “The Men Of Steel” is an uzvar inspired fruited sour and is part of Ten Men’s 100 Collaborations Project. All profits from the beers made within the project go towards new brewing equipment after Ten Men lost all theirs due to the Russian invasion in Ukraine.
11th March 8PM – Beer Bingo, Free entry
What it says on the tin. An evening of boozy, beery bingo. Relaxed vibes and great fun… Don’t forget your dabbers! Exciting prizes up for grabs and plenty of tasty beer pouring to see you through the evening.
16th March 2PM – “A Place To Be”, Free entry
Katie Mather delivers a talk on her new zine, “A Place To Be”, a love letter to drinking in liminal spaces and Pellicle magazine’s first printed publication. We will be privileged to have both Katie and Matthew Curtis here talking about the zine, pubs and the importance of found community in unexpected places.
Post beer week
March 28th – Burning Sky beer launch. Burning Sky are organising a nationwide launch across the best craft beer pubs around the UK, including at The Crow. Look out for more details soon!
Hotel Rooms
Book direct at thecrowinn@gmail.com for the best rates on our hotel rooms, for Sheffield Beer Week and beyond!
Over February, our small team have embarked on a series of collaboration brews across the North of England to brew a range of styles, launching here on cask for Sheffield Beer week. These include a smoked cherry Barley Wine with Torrside, a US Session Pale with North Riding, a stout with Tartarus, a hazy pale ale with Big Trip and a pale ale with one of our local favourites, Blue Bee.
Wednesday 12th March: Ideal Day showcase and meet the brewer 6-8.30pm
Ideal Day Family Brewery are a farmhouse brewery from Cornwall, making Belgian and classic British styles of beer with an innovative, modern twist and a commitment to regenerative agriculture. They’ll be on hand to talk us through a range of their beers, with some food pairings fresh from our kitchen.
Wednesday 12th March – Beer Week Quiz, 8.30pm – Our regular quiz, this week hosted by quiz master Quiztopher, with an added beery twist. Free entry
Thursday 13th March – Guided Sheffield Pub Heritage Talk – Little Chicago Quarter. 8pm – Price: £4.95
What: This event is a history/pub heritage talk which will concentrate on the Little Chicago area of Sheffield, taking you from the early part of 19th century up to the current day. We will explore both the pub heritage aspects of the area plus the streets which feature in the book, ‘Sheffield 1925: Gang Wars and Wembley Glory.’ The narrative will explain how Sheffield briefly became the most turbulent city in Britain due to an escalating gang war involving the Park Brigade, Mooney Gang, the Gas Tank Gang and many others. The talk will also explore the beer, social and Industrial heritage of the area, examining the myths and reality of a tumultuous year in Sheffield history. Mention will be made of the 1884 ‘Sheffield Drinks Map,’ the establishment of a coaching inn, George Orwell and the Sheffield pub with the most local CAMRA awards. The talk will be led by local historian and writer, John Stocks and ‘Sheffield’s Real Heritage Pubs’ editor, Dave Pickersgill. The talk will last for up to 60 minutes, followed by post-talk drink and discussion.
Tickets from Eventbrite.
Friday 14th-Sunday 16th – Belgian, German & Czech Beer showcase
A showcase of beers and styles both modern and historic from the classic European beer nations. German, Czech and Belgian inspired food pairings available from the main menu and specials board too.
All week plus over Indie Beer Week – British Beer Styles Showcase
All Week – as wide a range as possible showcasing historic and modern British beer styles from Barley Wine to Brown Ale, ESB, IPA and Porter. Matched with items from our daily food menu. Free entry
Wednesday 12th – 4pm: Ideal Day Showcase and Meet The Brewers Venue 1
A showcase of some of the range from Cornish farmhouse brewers Ideal Day. Come sample a couple of their beers on draught, with the founders and brewers on hand to talk through their ethos. We will have a special small plate menu item matched to the beers for the occasion too. Why not make it a really Ideal Day and follow them to the Harlequin afterwards for more of their beers, too?
Downstairs, A keg and cask showcase of a range of beer styles from the excellent Burning Sky Brewery of Firle in East Sussex.
Upstairs: a six beer tasting, including a range of Burning Sky’s mixed fermentation beers led by brewery founder and brewer Mark Tranter. £25 a ticket, message the pub on social media to sign up.
Sheffield, UK – March 10th to 16th, 2025 – Get ready to raise a glass to Sheffield Beer Week! This city-wide celebration of craft beer will once again unite the community
This year, Sheffield Beer Week will shine a spotlight on the ‘Outdoor City’ it calls home during The Festival of the Outdoors and the unique blend of beer and food pairing. Showcasing the city’s vibrant culinary scene alongside its thriving craft beer industry. Expect a diverse program of events, including:
Brewery Tours & Tastings: Go behind the scenes at local breweries, learn about the brewing process, and sample their latest creations. Visit the wealth of pubs, bars, beer shops and taprooms to enjoy tastings and events.
Beer & Food Pairings: Indulge in expertly curated local menus featuring beers paired with delicious dishes
Pub Tours & Walking Trail Events: Discover the gems, explore the city’s diverse pub, bar, beer shop and beer scene with guided tours and self-guided trails.
Community Events: Participate in family-friendly events, charity fundraisers, workshops and book readings that celebrate the spirit of community.
Sheffield Beer Week will also delve into the city’s rich brewing heritage, exploring its historical significance”We are thrilled to bring back Sheffield Beer Week and invite the community to join us in celebrating the city’s vibrant beer culture,” said Jules Gray of Sheffield Beer Week “This year, we are focusing on the unique connection between beer and food, while also honoring our city’s brewing heritage and the stunning outdoor city we call home. We encourage everyone to come out and experience the best of Sheffield.”
On the weekend of 7th to 8thMarch, to start the week, Sheffield’s craft beer festival, Indie Beer Feast is back at Trafalgar Warehouse. It’s a celebration of great independent craft beer with brewery bars, street food, low intervention wines and fine cider. The beer festival champions and supports The Everyone Welcome initiative. British Guild of Beer Writers’ member and leading UK award-wining beer writer Adrian Tierney-Jones will be heading up, alongside Founder and Director of community initiative, Women in Beer, Amelie Tassin to host pop-up tastings.
Sunday 16 March 2025 – walk – start 11:00, finish at Kelham Island Tavern ~12:30
Following the success of previous guided walks, events during Sheffield Beer Week 2025 will include a guided historical walk in Sheffield’s Little Chicago Quarter. We will explore both the pub heritage aspects of the area plus the streets which feature in the book, ‘Sheffield 1925: Gang Wars and Wembley Glory.’ Thenarrative will explain how Sheffield briefly became the most turbulent city in Britain due to an escalating gang war involving the Park Brigade, Mooney Gang, the Gas Tank Gang and many others.
The short walk will also explore the beer, social and Industrial heritage of the area, examining the myths and reality of a tumultuous year in Sheffield history. Along the way, mention will be made of the 1884 ‘Sheffield Drinks Map,’ George Orwell, the establishment of a coaching inn and the Sheffield pub with the most local CAMRA awards.
The walk will be led by local historian and writer, John Stocks and ‘Sheffield’s Real Heritage Pubs’ editor, Dave Pickersgill. The comfortable walk of just over one mile, with one minor ascent, will last for approximately 90 minutes, including one en route stop, followed by post-walk drink and discussion.
Includes:
* Guided historical walk
* copy of the new Pub Heritage walk booklet which features Little Chicago (A5, 32 pages, rrp £2.99)
* the opportunity to purchase a copy of ‘Sheffield 1925: Gang Wars and Wembley Glory’ (second edition) at the reduced price of £10 (cash only)
DATE: Sunday 16 March 2025
Meet: 11:00 outside the Sheffield Combined Court Centre, West Bar, S3 8BH
Finish: 12:30 Kelham Island Tavern, 62 Russell Street, S3 8RW
Cost: £4.95
Tickets available at: Eventbrite
Number of places available: 20
Pub Heritage Talk: Little Chicago
Thursday 13 March 2025 – 20:00 – Harlequin
This event is a history/pub heritage talk which will concentrate on the Little Chicago area of Sheffield, taking you from the early part of C19th up to the current day. We will explore both the pub heritage aspects of the area plus the streets which feature in the book, ‘Sheffield 1925: Gang Wars and Wembley Glory.’ The narrative will explain how Sheffield briefly became the most turbulent city in Britain due to an escalating gang war involving the Park Brigade, Mooney Gang, the Gas Tank Gang and many others.
The talk will be led by local historian and writer, John Stocks and ‘Sheffield’s Real Heritage Pubs’ editor, Dave Pickersgill. The talk will last for approximately 60 minutes, followed by post-talk drink and discussion.
Includes:
* historical talk (one hour, including questions)
* copy of the new Pub Heritage walk booklet which features Little Chicago (A5, 32 pages, rrp £2.99)
* the opportunity to purchase a copy of ‘Sheffield 1925: Gang Wars and Wembley Glory’ (second edition) at the reduced price of £10.00 (cash only)
For 2025 the Winter edition of Great British Beer Festival moves to our area, being held at Magna Science Adventure centre, a former steelworks on the Sheffield/Rotherham border near Meadowhall.
If you’ve been to the long running charity real ale & music festival at Magna, which held its final event in 2024, you’ll recognise the layout but also notice we’ve taken the opportunity to update things a little. If you’ve previously been to GBBF Winter in Burton on Trent, you’ll find we’ve made it somewhat bigger and added new features!
At GBBF Winter you’ll find cask ales from breweries across our region as well as interesting choices from further afield. A number of breweries will also be bringing their own bar, often staffed by brewery representatives who can answer questions about the beer, these bars will feature their beers on both cask and keg. The festival will also have a dedicated bar for good quality craft beers in keykeg along with a world beers bar featuring a list of up to 100 imported beers in cans, bottles and on tap (the international tap list will be on rotation). All the bars will accept card payment, alternatively you can use cash to buy bar tokens from the token sales points around the venue.
The Champion Winter Beer of Britain is judged at GBBF Winter, with the winner going forward to the final of the Champion Beer of Britain competition which is judged at the summer Great British Beer Festival in Birmingham. At GBBF Winter there will be a dedicated bar featuring all the competition entries, this will open for service once the results have been announced on Wednesday evening.
There will also be a Cider & Perry bar with a list curated by CAMRA enthusiasts which will only feature your proper cider & perry made from fresh juice, never concentrate.
On the entertainment front there will be live music on Wednesday and Thursday evening then all day Friday and Saturday whilst throughout the festival volunteers from the local Rotherham CAMRA branch will be hosting traditional table top games and a tombola!
An optional extra you can book for is a tutored tasting events, however these have limited capacity! These include
Champion Winter Beer of Britain tasting led by veteran beer writer & journalist Roger Protz (Wednesday 6:30pm and Thursday 2pm) – £12
Brewed on the Union system beer tasting led by veteran beer writer & journalist Roger Protz and Thornbridge brewers Rob Lovatt and Dominic Driscoll (Thursday 6pm) – £12
Beer & Cheese tasting, led by Annabel Smith (Friday 2pm) – £16
Beer & Music matching, led by writer Pete Brown (Friday 6pm) – £12
There is a trade session on Wednesday for those that work in the pub and beer industry from 4pm (festival opens to the wider public at 5pm) and applications are open online for complimentary tickets for those eligible.
As with all CAMRA festivals GBBF Winter is staffed by volunteers, if you fancy getting involved please fill in the volunteering form on the website.
Opening hours: Wednesday 5pm-11pm; Thursday to Saturday midday to 11pm. Entry is £10 (£8 for CAMRA members) and there are also group and season ticket deals available online. The price includes a souvenir glass to keep. For advance tickets and information visit winter.gbbf.org.uk. If you can’t commit to buying tickets in advance don’t worry, you can simply turn up and pay on the door too!
Getting there: Bus X3, operated by First, runs from Sheffield to Doncaster via Meadowhall and Rotherham and drops off on the main road behind Magna. At Meadowhall Interchange the bus connects with trains and trams, the bus ride from Meadowhall is just 5 minutes. From Rotherham Interchange the bus takes about 10-15 minutes depending on traffic. The venue also has a large car park and is near M1 junction 34.
The organisers of the recent Steel City Beer & Cider Festival would like to thank the following for donating items to the festival tombola and to sell for this year’s festival charity – the Weston Park Cancer Charity :- Ruth Grimsley, Phil Bayliss, Liz Aspden, Pete Roberts, AleChemist Brewery, Abbeydale Brewery, Docks Beers, Blue Bee Brewery, Kelham Island Tavern, Peak Ales, Paul Crofts, Sheffield Tap, Ossett Brewery, Contour Beer, Terry Palmer, MKM Building Supplies, Fairfax Chocolates, Bradfield Brewery, Les Greenwood, Thornbridge Brewery and everyone who donated anonymously. Apologies if we have missed anyone.
Thanks to everyone at the festival who supported Weston Park Cancer Charity (WPCC). Your generosity produced a record charity donation from the Steel City Beer Festival – a whopping £2700.00 – a donation rate of £1.20/minute!
This magnificent sum includes loose change, unused beer tokens, eBay sales of three full sets of SCBF48 beer mats and net proceeds from the charity beer. Thanks to everyone who contributed and thanks again to Abbeydale Brewery for providing the charity beer, ‘Together at Every Step,’ a 4.3% abv dry hopped pale ale.
As Festival Organiser, Paul Crofts said, ‘It’s a fantastic sum to raise for such a good charity. It was far more than we predicted and shows how much local people appreciate the work of Weston Park.’
Sam Heritage, WPCC Fundraising Manager said, ‘we are very grateful for your generous support and for making our team of volunteers and staff, plus Brontë feel so welcome. I’ve had amazing feedback on just how brilliant it has all been …. it really will make such a difference.’
The festival was formally opened by local legend, and South Yorkshire firefighter, Brontë Jones. WPCC supporter, Brontë, was runner-up in the 2024 series of the prime-time BBC TV programme, Gladiators.
Located in Sheffield, Weston Park Hospital is the main cancer treatment centre for South Yorkshire and large parts of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. In the UK, around 1,000 cancers are diagnosed every day.
WPCC is here to face cancer with you. Their services, advice, therapies and support are for you and the people close to you, helping everyone to live with, and beyond, cancer.
The weather smiled on the Steel City Beer & Cider Festival this year, and brought in the crowds for another successful festival.
Bronte Jones did the honours with the official opening. A local firefighter and a recent finalist on Gladiators, Bronte has been working with our chosen charity, Weston park Cancer charity to raise funds. Shown here with Paul Manning the Chairman of the Sheffield & district branch of CAMRA.
Abbeydale brewery produced a special charity beer “Together at Every Step” to raise even more money for Weston Park. A dry-hopped pale ale which we’re pleased to say sold out!
Abbeydale also hosted a beer tasting event held by Jim & Laura Rangeley, which focused on the history of the brewery and it’s recent move to become an Employee Ownership Trust.
Andy & Philippa Morton with their beer goggles on. A perfect example of the “Finest Quality Merchandise” on offer at the Tombola stall.
Wednesday evening saw our annual Beer Of The Festival award taking place. Each Sheffield brewery put forward a beer and a series of blind tastings arrived at the winners. This year’s winners were
1st – Tapped Brew Co. American Flyer. An American brown ale
2nd – Triple Point Brewery. Debut. A new-style IPA.
Dan & Martha from St Mars of the Desert brought a Stichfass cask of their traditional old ale ‘Owd Eerie’, which managed to sell out in under 30 minutes!
A variety of street food stalls kept the visitors fed throughout the festival with a number of delicious options.
Thursday saw The Tigermen take to the stage with some rousing rhythm & blues.
Friday night’s entertainment was the excellent Highway Child, back for their third appearance at the festival
Loxley Silver band returned for their ever-popular usual Saturday afternoon slot. A particular highlight was the haunting ‘Gresford’, written in 1936 to commemorate the Gresford Colliery mining disaster in Wrexham where 266 miners lost their lives.
Throughout Saturday, sword dancing mayhem was provided by local favourites Kelham Rapper and Sheffield Steel Rapper. No area of the festival was left untouched by their lively performances (No, we don’t know how they do it without injuring themselves either)
On 3 of the days the mighty Rover Don engine was in operation to the delight of the visitors lucky enough to get in the room before it was full.
The cider team in jolly mood. (We don’t know if this was before or after they tried the 13% mead from local producer Paradise Garage!)
The staff at the Keg Bar had a very busy festival as usual, and obviously all enjoying it. Even Josh from Kelham Island Tavern was smiling! The tall chap at the back wasn’t much help though.
A familiar face! Sean Clarke, former owner of Beer Central working behind the bar in the Upper Hall.
A lively afternoon in the Upper Hall.
Overall, another great festival. Thanks as ever go to all the volunteers who showed up and put in all the hard work to make it happen. And of course to all our visitors who came along to enjoy it.
It’s a couple of well-earned months off now for the planning committee before we start the process again in January. We’re always keen for new people to join the team, so feel free to email us if you’d like more info.
the team of volunteers that stayed behind after closing time Saturday to make a start on takedown then enjoy a few beers and pizza slices after!
