Rail Ale Festival in full swing 26th July

Marquee extension

raising steam

2024 Market Bosworth Rail Ale Festival 26 to 28 July

Report from Jackie Wallis - Beer Festival Organiser:-

Thank you to the sponsors, the Battle field Line, and to all of the volunteers who gave up their time to make the festival a success, but especially David and Tracy for sorting out the beer; Rob and Stuart for getting the sponsorship; Michelle for doing the Health and Safety stuff; and John for doing the staffing and treasurer amongst many others things. Thanks also to Tony Smith who volunteered for all of the shifts over the weekend.

This year we were very fortunate with the weather, apart from a brief shower on Saturday afternoon, it was dry and mainly sunny – such a change from the damp/wet weather we have had in the past few years! The sun seemed to bring more visitors and around the Goods Shed there were displays of traction engines in steam, both full size and miniature versions. The Heritage buses were a success with their new timetable of buses from Nuneaton to Hinckley and on to Market Bosworth, with some going through Earl Shilton and Barwell.

The Battlefield Line ran trains all weekend with steam hauled trains on Saturday and Sunday provided by a GWR Large Prairie locomotive No 5199. The beer and cider on the train was popular, as was this year’s Festival Special beer - Normandy Landings, a 4.4% ruby ale brewed by our chairman Tracy Ellis with Pig Pub Brewery, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. It proved to be popular and was virtually all gone by the end of Friday night, just 1 gallon left.

It was nice to see all the ciders drunk and nearly all of the beers (pouring beer away after the festival always seems such a shame). Pimms and prosecco also proved to be very popular on Friday and sold out early on Saturday evening so white wine was the order of the day on Saturday. The figures for those who like them are: 471 gallons of beer, 180 litres lager, 500 litres cider On the wines - 12 litres of Pimms and 24 bottles of prosecco - more of these was drunk on Friday than the whole of last year. Also 24 bottles of white wine, 7 rose and 8 red

Sales from the initial figures were up 20%, which is approximately the amount thrown away last year. Gary recruited 13 new members. The charity box raised £17.40 in cash and £209.00 in tokens which will go to the Royal British Legion.

The first beer to sell out was Sarah Hughes Ruby Mild on Friday, closely followed by Normandy Landings on Saturday. Dark beers were popular again on Friday. It was a shame that dark beers were so hard to find this year or we could have had more.

The experiment with lager proved to be popular especially with families on Sunday. Of the ciders the first to sell out was Lily the Pink and Saxby’s Cloudy Rhubarb. Had we known the weather would be so nice we could have had a couple more boxes.

On the train the beers sold out on Saturday and about half of the ciders. Leatherbritches Bohemian Dark and Thirsty Farmer’s Summer Fruit cider were particularly nice. The spare beers were put on in the Goods Shed on Saturday night and the remains of the ciders on Sunday morning. None lasted very long.

Dr Busker performed on Friday to a packed marquee, but was unfortunately taken ill on Saturday so an improvised performance was created for Saturday night by Shakespeare's Rally Promotions and Dr Buskers gang of performers. Saturday afternoon saw entertainment proved by Sloop Groggy Dogs singing sea shanties.

Thank you again for your help and hope to see you all again next year.