Hermitage celebrates Oktoberfest at Village Hall

The second Oktoberfest celebration returned to Hermitage Village Hall on Saturday.

Guests enjoyed an evening of live music and relaxing family entertainment with a wide selection of local beers, cider and gin to see them through the night.

The festival marks the latest community effort to keep the hall at the centre of village life and is popular with families, who can bring their children along free of charge.

The festival also attracted interest from outside the village, as it did last year, as Jane Staunton, a trustee for the hall, explained: "We do have a couple of people on Twitter who are into local ales who feature us in their blogs. It's a walk to event, which is quite good."

Speaking as the event was in full swing, she added: "We sold 100 tickets, but we think we're going to have a lot more arrivals on the door. Last year, we had around 170, so if we can get that again we'll be really happy.

"Funds are raised and used to buy things for the village hall. For example, we're just having a bespoke cupboard built in the kitchen.

"It's a commercial kitchen, we buy proper commercial catering equipment, which enables us to let it out better.

"The event is also a safety net because we don't quite know what the electricity bill is going to be next year. We think we're safe until 2024, but who knows what the future holds."

Organisers hope to continue the festival next year, but need more people to attend the event to justify the costs involved in running it.