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Pendle beer festival raises £6,000 for Pendleside Hospice
Locals sample an ale at the Pendle Beer Festival. Photo Ben Parsons
Pendle’s eighth beer festival has proved the most successful to date after raising more than £6,000 for Pendleside Hospice.
Just over 2,600 people came through the doors over the three days to sample some of the 165 beers and 26 ciders on offer.
It was very much a festival for Yorkshire drinks as public opinion made “Mary Jane” from the Ilkley Brewery the Beer of the Festival while the Cider of the Festival award went to “Deanhouse Dry” from the Pure North Cider Press, Holmfirth.
The increase in money raised for Pendleside Hospice was in part down to even more beers receiving sponsorship this year which was once again well over 50%.
Steve Dilworth, landlord at the Swan with Three Necks, Pendleton, opened the CAMRA-organised festival last Thursday and as a result of his pub being in the final four for best real ale pub in the UK.
The potential champion opened a champions themed event too as many of the beers and ciders featured had won awards at other beer festivals around the country.
Two further new ideas for the 2012 festival was a talk on the Inns of Colne on the opening night and a women’s only night held last Wednesday, both of which proved successful and are likely to return in 2013.
Volunteers also had to battle the snow on Saturday afternoon and evening, but try as it might to disturb proceedings, the show went on and beer festival organiser Martyn Pashley was delighted.
He said: “It’s an absolutely fantastic figure to have raised and thanks go to the volunteers for their efforts and the generosity of the sponsors and public who helped achieve this.
“I did speak to a number of people who came to have a beer with us over the three days we were open and everyone said they thoroughly enjoyed the event, the beer quality and the live music on stage.
“My apologies to those who had to queue outside the Muni on a bitterly cold Friday evening. I’d like to explain that we have a limit on the number of people allowed in the Muni at any one time, so as to ensure peoples safety. We then operate on the basis of one person out, one person in, after this limit is reached.
“On Saturday evening we suffered the same problems as all businesses in Colne, snow! Our staff even carried all the bands guitars and drums from abandoned cars at Holker Mill up hill to the Muni to ensure the show could go on.
“Very many thanks to the 200 lovers of real ale who stayed with us and helped make Saturday evening a very enjoyable occasion to close the eighth Pendle Beer Festival.”
Carl Barnacle, from Pendleside Hospice, said: “Six thousand pounds is a superb result and is up by £400 on last year. It’s just a shame the snow came on Saturday, who knows what could have been achieved.
“I thoroughly enjoyed opening and attending an extremely successful beer festival and thanks go to all the volunteers, sponsors and those who helped raise a brilliant amount.”
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Weather for Pendle
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: East
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