Rescue Rooms Beer Festival

Clear any August Bank Holiday plans; Rescue Rooms are hosting a beer festival featuring nearly 100 beers and ciders, tons of bands, a banging barbecue and guaranteed blazing sunshine (sunshine not guaranteed). It isn’t just hardcore real-ale lovers, craft enthusiasts and cider swiggers that’ll find something to whet their whistles at the festival though. “The festival is for everybody,” says Sophie Kibble, Promotions at Rescue Rooms and Rock City. As long as you're over eighteen, mind.

“We’ve got the more traditional cask and keg beer, a huge range of bottled beer and cider, and loads of different local breweries coming down to keep it varied. We’ll have over ninety different types of beers and ciders, so we’d be surprised if you didn’t like at least one.”

Just a few of the breweries on offer will be London’s Beavertown, taking over the whole main bar, ABK Brewery with their authentic Bavarian beer, honed over seven centuries, and favourites from closer to home including Black Iris, Castle Rock and Blue Monkey. Nottingham’s own Blue Barrel Cider will also be taking over the Red Room. Sophie says “Purity are a great little brewery; Longhorn IPA and Mad Goose are particular favourites of ours. Home Ales are also an exciting brewery. They started in 1875 in Nottingham, took a break, and have now been reinvented, with popular ales such as Robin Pale making a comeback.”

Need some snap to soak up your suds? Local award-winning butcher, Johnny Pusztai, will be barbecuing all day. “All his food is locally sourced, made and cooked by the man himself; you can't get better than that. We’ll also have someone providing some tasty, sweet treats,” Sophie says.

This being Rescue Rooms, there’ll of course be plenty of chance to mosh, twerk and generally throw shapes like a goon, too. “In the main bar, our weekly Acoustic Rooms night will be taking the reins and providing some of Nottingham's finest acoustic acts,” says Sophie. “Over in the venue, we’ve got a variety of bands playing throughout the day, so expect a little bit of everything. Then, to end the festival, in our mini-Oktoberfest, we’ve got a German oompah band to finish things off.”

Tickets are a tenner, and for that you get entry, two beer tokens, a snazzy stein glass, plus a quid goes to local motor neurone disease charity The Broad Appeal, so at least you can appease your charitable thoughts through gulletfuls of beer and burgers.

This is the first beer festival Rescue Rooms have put on, and they plan to make it a regular summer fixture. “We want to make it a yearly event, every August bank holiday, showcasing the newest breweries and finest beer, while sticking to our musical roots, and helping local bands and performers showcase their talent.”

We’ll be down there showcasing our own unique talents at the bar.

The Rescue Rooms Beer Festival takes places on Sunday 27 August, 12pm - 11pm, £10.

Rescue Rooms website