Apple and Ale Festival is sweet success

Buy photos » Tom Walker gets in the apple and ale spirit at the start of the festival. 43012017nce2

IT WAS a case of sweet success in the Vale last weekend as the Apple and Ale Festival returned to Bretforton.

More than 1,000 visitors turned up at the village's Fleece Inn on Saturday and Sunday (October 20 and 21) for a feast of fun and apple related activity.

The annual event saw apple pressing demonstrations take place using the pub's very own 1850s and recently refurbished apple scratter. And the presser worked wonders as the visitors helped create the Fleece's homemade cider The ark.

Taste buds were tantalised as visitors got to sample more than 40 beers and ciders in total.

Live music was played during the weekend by Blue Grass band The Slippery Hill Boys in the pub's medieval thatched barn.

The Fleece Inn landlord Nigel Smith was delighted with the number of people who came to celebrate the festival.

"The festival went very well and it was really good to see so many people come here over the weekend," he told the Observer.

"What was really good was the Saturday entertainment and the live music from the Blue Grass band who got a good reaction from our visitors.

"We will now start planning and thinking of what improvements we can make for next year's festival."

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