IT will be a drinkers’ paradise as Stalybridge Civic Hall hosts the ninth Tameside Beer Festival on Friday and Saturday, September 13 and 14.
Organised by Tameside Rotary, there will be 39 beers on tap at £3 per pint including a number which will be making their bows at the festival which runs from noon to 11pm each day. Admission by programme is £3.
Local breweries Millstone, from Mossley, Greenfield’s Donkeystone and Pictish, from Rochdale, will also have their beers on sale at the event which normally attracts more than 800 visitors.
Apart from beers, there will also be a choice of ciders and wine and food will also be available.
Live music and entertainment will also be a feature of the two days with profits donated to Willow Wood Hospice and Friends of Tameside Young Carers.
Friday’s line up: 5pm, Eric Barrow; 6pm, Spindrift folk group; 9pm, The Cornelius Crane.
Saturday: 3pm, Phoenix Brass Hoppers oompah band; 5pm, Tameside Community Voices; 7.30pm, Miseley Brothers; 9pm, Steeley Don.
The Tameside Beer Festival, originally started by the Rotary Club of Ashton-under-Lyne, was conceived in 2011 by the late Alan Jones a long-standing member of the club.
The original idea was to raise money for the ‘End Polio Now’ campaign, an initiative of Rotary International working with the World Health Organisation. It was started in 1985 with the intention of eradicating polio from the world.
The event proved to be a success and raised about £1,200.
In 2012, the festival aimed to raise funds for WaterAid another Rotary supported charity.
From 2013 onwards it was decided to support local charities. Rather than the few hundred pounds that Ashton Rotary had traditionally given to local charities, the money raised from the beer festival could be significant and make a difference.
The Rotary Club of Ashton-under-Lyne ceased to operate in 2016. Many members joined the new Tameside Rotary and kept alive the beer festival which has gone from strength to strength and last year raised £8,400.
