Heavenly Beer will flow as the Beverley Real Ale Festival returns to St Mary’s Church!

With queues of people stretching around the church and into town, an unbelievable atmosphere with punters welcomed into one of the region’s most iconic buildings and the sweet smell of hand-pulled real ale in the air… The first ever Beverley Real Ale festival held back in October 2012 was a massive success and is still talked about today as one of the best beer festivals ever held in the region.

Six years on as England is gripped in the heatwave of 2018, real ale and craft beer is booming, East Yorkshire has some of the best breweries in Yorkshire… and the Beverley Real Ale Festival is set to return for 2018 to St Mary’s Church!

Taking place a little later than usual on the 19th and 20th of October, people will be again able to sample some of the region’s most fantastic hand-crafted tipples set within the awe inspiring St Mary’s. Set to be the ‘go-to event’ of 2018, organisers are promising big things for this homecoming event… with more beer choice, more craft keg, more cider, more food choice, a new gin and prosecco bar and greater live music, the stage is set for this to be ‘the’ Beer Festival of 2018!

James Harper – Festival Organiser said:

“2012 was by far the best of all the beer festivals we have organised, the venue, the atmosphere, the people, the supporters and the volunteers all came together to make what was such a special event. It’s no secret that we have wanted the festival to return to St Mary’s, I’ve lost count of the times people have asked us when the festival would return… so it’s just brilliant to be able to share the news that the Beer festival will be returning to the church!

Since 2012 things have moved on leaps and bounds in the world of beer, we have more local breweries, we have far more choice and quality, consumers are demanding a better product and have fully embraced local brewing as an industry to be proud of. We will make the most of all our local Breweries and we urge punters to watch this space for announcements, opportunities and more ways to get involved.

I’m certain the 2018 festival will be a huge success and let’s hope it’s not another six years before we return to the Church.”

In addition to the great beer, food and music, St Mary’s Church will be hoping that the event helps bring in some additional and much needed funds to help with and raise awareness of the church’s restoration project.

Roland Deller, Director of Development at St Mary’s Church went on to say:

St Mary’s is delighted to be the venue for a number of local festivals, and we’re pleased to see the return of the Beverley Real Ale Festival this autumn. Every year the church loves welcoming through its doors thousands of people from near and far and from all walks of life. We’re proud that beautiful St Mary’s remains one of the most important community buildings in the area, where people come together at times of sorrow and of joy, and we look forward to seeing many festivalgoers over the course of the weekend.

St Mary’s is currently redoubling its efforts to preserve this spectacular medieval building, whose stonework is severely crumbling, and the beer festival is a great opportunity for us to raise awareness of the building and of our fundraising. Volunteers from the church will be on hand to man the tombola and serve soft drinks in aid of the restoration fund. We hope the festivalgoers will have a wonderful weekend of beer and good company, and will help keep the place standing for another nine hundred years.”

Helen Watson, Town Clerk said:

‘’It certainly is great news that the Beer Festival is moving back to St Marys Church, where it first began six years ago.  The Beverley Beer Festival is always a lively, community event enjoyed by many.  We welcome the Beer Festival s return to the Beverley Food Festival in 2019.”

Festival organisers are also urging would be pint-pulling volunteers to register early. Places are already being snapped up and to avoid disappointment people are being urged to register sooner rather than later. In addition to the fantastic support the festival receives each year from the public there is also a big thanks to the many local businesses who have sponsored various elements of the festival including the famous Beverley souvenir glass! This year the main festival sponsor is Blowers Jewellers.

Mark Blower from Blowers Jewellers went on to say:

“Blowers Jewellers are delighted be involved with a well supported local event, we have a great reputation for luxury Watches & Jewellery country wide so much promotion and marketing is done through on-line channels these days, it’s really nice to support a local event with a great caliber of people attending, who enjoy a nice pint!

We are looking forward to inviting our local customers and we will be enjoying sampling the goods ourselves!”

Other sponsorship options are available and can be viewed by visiting the festival website.

The Beverley Real Ale Festival will take place on:

19th October 1.00 – 6.00pm Afternoon session £3.50 / 6.30 – 11.00pm Evening session (live Music) Tickets Advance £5.50 from the festival website – www.beverley.realalefestivals.co.uk

20th October 12.00 – 11.00 – Live music and drink the bars dry – £3.50 on the door all day

Photos and Video by Hull Live photographer Peter Harbour

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