Well it’s that time of year again and the 5th Old Town Beer and Cider Festival is taking place on Friday 5th and Saturday 6th May in the church at Christ Church.
This is the first time that the Festival has introduced an extra day and expect to nearly double the amount of attendees to 1200 this year. They have therefore increased their beer selection to nearly 60 and will have 30 different ciders.
There will be 3 different ticket options available this year, Friday from 6-10pm, Saturday from 12noon onwards and then a Saturday evening from 6pm onwards.
The Friday evening session will give festival goers the chance to get in a day earlier than normal to sample the fine selection of ales and ciders.
Ian and Ant from Three Castles brewery, based in Pewsey have again been a great help and have sourced all of the beers and ciders for us yet again.
This year they have been lucky to acquire sponsorship from a number of local businesses and the main event is sponsored jointly for the second year running by the Hop Inn and Los Gatos.
Phil (Los Gatos) and Jason (The Hop) said “We support the Old Town Beer Festival to promote local appreciation of the good stuff. What we share is a love of a quality natural product, be it food or drink. If it’s made with care from good ingredients, it’s for us, and we hope it’s for you too. Our investment in the local community is as important to us as the community’s support for our businesses. We wish the Festival every success and remember – we are here all year round!”
And they have again had a beer made especially for the festival by Three Castles brewery which has been named “Lupulo Gold”. Lupolo means Hops in Spanish which is named very cleverly after our joint sponsors Los Gatos the Spanish Tapas and the Hop Inn pub.
The original allocation of the Saturday tickets sold out within a week thanks to the support of Magnum wine shop in Wood Street and the Hop Inn in Devizes Road.
There are still around 80 Friday tickets available and 120 Saturday evening tickets.
As of Monday 24th April, they will be releasing a further 90 tickets for the Saturday day time.
Tickets for the Friday evening and Saturday day cost £10 each and include a souvenir senator style glass, an event brochure and £3 worth of drinks tokens to get you started. Saturday evening is reduced to £5 a ticket (no drinks tokens included) with the beer and cider selection expected to be limited by this point.
Extra Tickets for the Saturday day time will be available from Magnums Wine shop, Wood Street only from 9.30am on Monday 24th April.
Friday and Saturday evening tickets can be bought from Magnums to as well as from from the Hop Inn and online at: www.oldtownbeerfestival.com
This year we will be supporting Phoenix Enterprises who are an independent social enterprise whose commercial activities support training and employment opportunities for people in the Swindon area with mental health issues.
They will also be supporting the Rotary club of Swindon Old Town who will be in attendance to sell ducks for their famous duck race taking place on Monday 29th May.
Food will again be provided by our local butchers ‘Wilsons’ on the Saturday. They will be serving their fantastic handmade pies until around 4pm and then they will then be selling burgers and hot dogs until around 8pm. To supplement this the Friends of Christ Church will be serving a selection of rolls!
On the Friday night, another local business, Il Capricorno will be serving up pizza slices.
Again this year, Rays Ice Cream shop are making a special beer flavoured Ice Cream and cider sorbet for the day and Glamorose Cakes will be selling their delicious tiffins.
On the Sunday there will be a special Beer and Hymns service which is open to all. The free bar opens at 6pm with the service taking place between 6.30-7.30pm. Any beer left over from the Saturday must go! We will also be looking for helpers to set down all of the beers after this service so please do let us know if you can help.
For more information about the event please contact Chris Smith
Email: chris.smith@ccccswindon.co.uk
Tel: 01793 617237
Website: www.oldtownbeerfestival.com
