Newbury Ale Festival makes triumphant return to Northcroft Park

Thousands of visitors filled Northcroft Park on Saturday for Newbury’s popular one-day Real Ale Festival.

Around 5,000 visitors sunk almost 22,000 pints at the popular not-for-profit festival — 9,000 of which were supplied by Renegade Brewery in Yattendon.

As if that was not enough, crowds also worked their through 100 bottles of gin, rum and Pimm’s.

“It’s fantastic,” said Emma James. “We’ve been here since the start; we had to make sure we saw the Crayons’ set.”

Music by local bands and from further afield kept visitors entertained during the day’s festivities.

The mainstage line-up kicked off with Who Ate All The Crayons at 12.15pm.

Their performance was followed by Brick Top at 1.15pm, B Funkt at 2.30pm, Fleetwood Unchained at 4pm, Brightside Killers at 5.45pm and finished with a long overdue finale by Killer Queen at 7.30pm.

“We were so pleased with the turnout again this year and were once again blessed with the weather,” said organiser David Whittingham.

“Newbury, you did us proud. So many smiles and memories were made.

“A huge thanks to all of the volunteers from Newbury and Thatcham Hockey Club; we couldn’t do the festival without them.”

Mr Whittingham said he also wanted to thank all the local businesses that lend their support to the event each year, with special mentions going to Fusion Group, The Champion Group, The Catherine Wheel and Gardner Leader.