Last weekend saw Preston Grasshoppers hold its first ever beer festival, HopFest, which ran from Friday to Sunday. The festival proved to be a huge success with over 1,200 people attending across the weekend.
The weekend started at 12 noon on Friday with over 250 guests from local businesses meeting to form the Hopper Business Network and open the festival. They had just a little help from the Thwaites’ Shire Horses to kick off proceedings.
The horses cool down with a nice pint
The Business Network continued throughout the afternoon with music being provided by Kathy Anderson until the festival opened its doors to members from 5pm and the general public at 7. Local band Tusk took over on the music front as the large crowds enjoyed the summer weather alongside the dozens of ales, lagers and ciders on offer. With the crowd swelling to over 500 for the evening it was up to rock band Ghost Dancer to close the first day of the festival and they didn’t fail to deliver.
The large crowd enjoyed Ghost Dancer’s classic rock covers whilst drinking the bar dry of several of the barrels on offer. A thunderstorm couldn’t dampen spirits and the large crowd went home happy as the first day of the festival closed.
Saturday started with glorious blue skies as early risers arrived to see what the re-stocked bar had to offer. The afternoon saw the North Lancashire Social Touch Rugby Tournament taking place alongside the beer festival with 10 teams taking part. The teams all took part in a very sporting manner with some choosing to re-hydrate from the bar instead of a sports bottle.
All the teams from the touch rugby tournament
As the tournament progressed so did the size of the crowds with hundreds of revellers inside the grounds by tea time.
Afternoon music was provided by up and coming talent Ben Hackett who then handed over to Keith Mitchell for some sing-a-long classics. With the touch rugby tournament now finished the 1st XV pitch was filled with people enjoying the sunshine.
Saturday evening saw Tusk warm up the crowds before Blokes and a Bird brought the Saturday night to a close. Somehow the crowd managed to top Friday with several beers and particularly cider (must be the hot weather!) running out.
The festival reopened on Sunday from 12-4pm with just 13 part barrels of cask ale remaining. Ben Hackett closed the festival and due to the wet weather had to play indoors. After glorious weather on Friday and Saturday, it would have been too much to expect a third beautiful day and the staff on duty were probably grateful of the cooler weather.
Thank you to all the hard working staff and volunteers
The festival closed at 4pm with organisers incredibly pleased with how the three-day event had gone. Club General Manager Richard Ellis said, “We are delighted with how HopFest has gone. We could never have imagined that it would have been attended by over 1,200 people although the weather probably helped with that! The club is very grateful to all the staff and club members who volunteered over the weekend, we couldn’t have done it without them. We’ve learned an awful lot from hosting our first beer festival and we’ll use that to help make HopFest even better next year!”
Next year’s HopFest is due to take place from 15th-17th July.
Photos courtesy of Sun Dry Video Production.
The club has put together the graphic below to give an insight into the numbers that went into the festival.
