Durham pub’s local favourite ‘Beer, Bangers and Cocktail’ Festival returns for its third year with a cocktail and prosecco bar

Durham pub’s local favourite ‘Beer, Bangers and Cocktail’ Festival returns for its third year with a cocktail and prosecco bar!

• Back by popular demand, the Woodman Inn’s beer and bangers festival returned for a third year to Durham
• The pub will be building on last year’s success with the introduction of a prosecco and cocktail bar alongside their huge selection of over 30 real ales, ciders and perry.

The Woodman Inn in Durham brought back its highly-awaited beer festival for a third year. Running from the 19^th-24^th July, guests were able to sample over 30 real ales, ciders and perry along with fabulous summer entertainment and food on offer.

The pub hosted an impressive 800 guests at last year’s festival and hoped to top this number for 2018. Known for having ‘One of the best beer gardens in Durham’, licensees Sean and Jane Quilty are looking to build further on the tremendous success of the past two years by adding two extra days to this local festival. New for this year, there was a bar to get your prosecco or cocktail fix as the perfect salute to summer with classic cocktails such as Mojitos and Woo Woos along with Gin Fizz and Vodka Sunrise.

A mouth-watering selection of high-quality BBQ food was available, including Red Wine and Garlic and Swedish Blonde Ale sausages from local producers Barretts Butchers. For £3.80, customers can choose from two sausages, a fresh bap with a side-salad and coleslaw.

The festival is free to enter. A limited number of VIP tickets were available for £25 on the opening night 19^th July, which entitled guests to one limited edition festival tee shirt, a CAMRA Durham tankard glass, a load of 1/2 pint tokens for drinks during the festival, as well a delicious BBQ sausage bap, plus a 10% discount card across the full range of ales for the full weekend (great value for those making a weekend of it).

There was also a huge range of entertainment to see at the ‘Beer, Bangers and Cocktails’ festival including the award-winning Mea Deen, a highly acclaimed North East vocalist on the opening night, also acoustic singer Larry Page, the Savoy Shuffle Band as well as side-splitting stand-up comedy with this year’s headline act, Jim Bayes and compere Carl B Gillespie.

Not forgetting from Saturday evening; Durham’s singing landlord himself, Mr Q’s Karaoke – full of party fun, cheesy music and the cracking Carling’s Sing & Spin competition where a spot prize or even a weekend break was up for grabs!

The festival has been sponsored by several local and nationwide businesses including the UK’s leading community pub operator behind the Woodman, Admiral Taverns as well as Durham CAMRA, Maxim Brewery (Houghton Le Spring) & Marston’s Brewery.

Commenting on the festival, Licensee for the Woodman Inn, Sean Quilty said:

“We are very excited to be bringing this popular festival back for the third time. Our ‘Magners cider garden’ is one of the best in Durham and it allows us to host brilliant community events, giving locals the chance to sample an incredible range of great-tasting ales, ciders and perrys.

For 2018, we look forward to bringing bigger and better things for our loyal customers, especially with the introduction of our summery prosecco and cocktail bar. Of course, there will be a great range of ales to sample, tasty local sausages to accompany them and a chance to experience Mrs Q’s garden in all its beautiful glory!’

Commenting on the project, BDM for the area Stephen Birkett from Admiral Taverns said:

‘The Woodman Inn is a true beacon for what a great British community pub can offer to its local area and a real credit to Sean and his team’s hard work. Their passion and commitment to the festival continues to impress locals and the team go the extra mile, year on year. With their fantastic beer garden ready for another cracking Summer, we are delighted to be sponsoring the ‘Beer, Bangers and Cocktails’ festival once again.’

You can follow the festival over the weekend via facebook.com/Thewoodmaninn and Twitter @WoodmanInnDH1