Fest of fun: Burton

A rare treat for me - my wife gets to tag along to a festival! Rebecca likes her cider and perry, so as we both had a few days off work we decided to heads over to Burton upon Trent for their first Spring fest.



An early start on the X38 express from Derby gave us a chance to pop into a Wetherspoons and try one of their festival beers first. Bec eschewed the cider this early on and plumped for hot chocolate, but I couldn't resist a St. Georgen Brau Keller Bier, a wonderfully soft, slightly spicy concoction.

On to the Town Hall, then. I like this as a beer fest venue; one main hall for the stillage, two rooms at the back for seating (or more beers for their main fest in September). It's all on one level, which was ideal for Bec's wheelchair access, with the exception of the theatre seating upstairs.





We met up with some friends in the back, all regulars from the Brunswick in Derby; John, Brian, Ray and 'Magic' Mitch all like a beer or five and have plenty of tales to tell.



Here's a rare picture of Mitch - not mid-magic trick, not trying to sell you a car ;-)
























The beers were fairly varied and in good nick. For me, Burton fests tend to be ones where I stick with the beers I like; Beowolf Dragon Smoke Stout, Whim Black Christmas and Robinson's Old Tom were all in fine fettle. The cider and perry list was small but well formed; Bec tends to drink through the perry list until she finds one she likes and then sticks to it. Here, the firm favourite was a Severn perry that had been finished with whisky - Bec liked it so much that she threw one glass of it all over the table in sheer excitement!

I don't mind being sat away from the action - I like to hear myself think and hear what others have to say - so I'd no problem with the large round tables set up in the rear hall. Though, compared to previous trestle table years, it did seem to cut down on the total number of seats available - especially as what seemed to be a CAMRA meeting had closed the other seated room for a few hours on the Friday.



Food was good fest stuff - freshly made rolls, Broughton's splendid pies and the incomparable pork scratchings from Tony's on Burton market.

As for the entertainment - what more could you want than a sing-a-long with the salmon-jacketed maestro of the WurliTzer, Martin Atterbury? Indeed, many of the older ladies I spoke to that lunchtime said they'd travelled to Burton just to see Martin finger his organ on stage.
























All in all, fest of fun. Good beers in good nick, well-proportioned venue, plenty of decent snap, plenty of scope for a laugh and close enough to the rail station / bus stop for the short hop home. Now, Mitch; that's magic!