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Our fifth annual cider festival was a huge success, with the largest attendance to date. Next year it may have to be ticket only to manage the crowd numbers! The festival format was the same as last year with a Ceilidh on the Friday evening; meet the Cider Makers on Saturday and the farmers and craft market on Sunday. Despite the variable weather, we were in luck. Although most of the weekend was overcast, it was warm and dry.
For an alternative
report
and more festival
photos (three web pages and a 25-minute video) visit |
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The Poachers got us off to a lively start on Friday evening with plenty of dancing. |
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On Saturday, we had nine cider makers with producers from Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Wales. Four were new to our festival.
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Of course, we had plenty of our own finest cider and perry for sale. |
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| An innovation was to ask our visitors to vote for their favourite cider and perry. The winner of the best cider in the festival went to Gwatkins. The winner of the best perry in the festival went to Barbourne Cider. Our congratulations to them both. | |||||||||||
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| Gwatkins Cider | Richard & Suzie of Barbourne Cider. | ||||||||||
| There was a cider pressing demonstration managed by Dave Matthews of Seider Dai on his recently acquired wooden screw press. |
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Our raffle this year was in aid of of the Kaloko Trust. Left is a photo of the lucky winner of the cider hamper. |
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On Saturday afternoon we had the duo Miln and James and Stroddy to entertain us. In the evening, we rocked away to the Hellbellies with the Kentucky Fried and ended the day with Chicken Shed Zeppelin. |
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Miln and James |
The Hellbellies |
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| The crowd enjoying the cider and music. | The Hellbellies with Kentucky Fried. | ||||||||||
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A member of Kentucky Fried playing the washboard off stage. |
Stroddy Chicken Shed Zeppelin |
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Sunday
started badly! A neighbour had reported that a wooden electricity pole
was in danger of collapsing, the woodpeckers having severely damaged it,
so urgent replacement was required. The consequence was the
workmen had to cut
off the electricity supply whilst they carried out the repair. They were as good as their word and restored the power by
midday in time for the festival kick-off. |
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We would have liked more visitors to our farmers and craft market on Sunday. Hopefully everyone who came found something of interest and that the stallholders had a good day (enjoying our festival and making some money selling their wares). The Five Malcolms, Louise Richardson, the Mike Bertenshaw Trio and the Hellbellies provided musical entertainment throughout the day. |
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| Craft stalls | The Five Malcolms | ||||||||||
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As always, Hilary and John with their team of helpers provided excellent food throughout the weekend. |
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| More stalls! |
Louise Richardson Mike Bertenshaw Trio |
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