A festival atmosphere returned to Hoole for the popular neighbourhood’s inaugural Beer Festival at Hoole Community Centre.

Hundreds of people from far and wide flocked to Hoole to enjoy dozens of real ales and artisan ciders, accompanied by live music entertainment from local singers and bands playing original music as well as old favourites.

The festival was organised by Hoole business Chester Beer & Wine.

Its owner Samantha Jackson said: “After 12 months of planning it was great to see the event getting such amazing support from the local community as well as many visitors from all over the North West who came for the Beer Festival but stayed for the weekend to explore Chester.

“The community centre was the only choice for the festival – not only is it a beautiful heritage building, it is a fantastic local resource which we love supporting, used by dozens of local clubs and groups ranging from babies to active seniors.”

Event organiser for Chester Beer & Wine Sue Mason said: “We have delivered many events in Hoole, including the Street Festivals and the Christmas lights switch on, so we know how to appeal to the entire community for a fun and safe event for all the family.

“We were thrilled with the positive feedback we received from our attendees. Everyone had a fantastic time and can’t wait to come back again next year. We have already booked the venue for 2018!”

There were many original ideas for the Beer Festival to ensure there was plenty to keep everyone happy, including an interactive seminar from qualified beer sommelier Martin Hilton, a Q&A session with local brewer Dave Shaw from Big Hand Brewery in Wrexham, and for the non beer drinkers there was a speciality bar with eight different gins plus a wine and prosecco bar.

For the Saturday afternoon session, the unique addition of children’s entertainment including facepainting, circus skills and creative activities allowed parents to enjoy all the fun of the Carnival atmosphere.

Shop manager and beer buyer for Chester Beer & Wine Dave Calver chose all the beers for the festival and was swamped with praise for his beer choices all weekend.

He said: “We knew we were on to a winner when we saw a tweet from one of our regular customers, Rhys Morgan: “Get down here. Something special is occurring.”

“It’s a great feeling when all your hard work behind the scenes pays off and you know you’ve got it right!”

The event also got the seal of approval from attendee Kelvin Lawson, a key organiser of the Chester Charity Beer Festival, now in its 30th year.

He said: “The team have done brilliantly and I’m very envious of the specially built bar with such a fantastic selection of real ales on handpull. We’ll be stealing a few ideas for next year I’m sure.”

The festival also had great support from the business community, including Aaron & Co Solicitors and Ellis & Co Accountants.

Louie Middlehurst from Financial Advisers Illingworth Seddon was a headline event sponsor.

He said: “As a company based just outside of Chester in Tattenhall, the Hoole Beer Festival was a perfect opportunity for us to invite our Chester client base to an exciting new event right on our doorstep. We were delighted to have the opportunity to sponsor, and both our clients and staff had a fantastic time. It was a huge success, and we look forward to being involved with the event again in the future.”

Other sponsors included Alexander’s Live and Storrar Vets Practice who also hailed the event a great success. James Storrar ‘met a lot of potentially new customers because the event was dog friendly…’ and Jamie Northrop of Alexander’s sponsored the main stage and gained a lot of live music fans as customers.

If you would like to join in the fun next year as a visitor or a sponsor please get in touch via the Chester Beer & Wine website and save the dates: Friday, August 3 to Sunday, August 5, 2018.