The third Shropshire Oktoberfest at Shrewsbury’s Quarry has been deemed a success by its organisers.
Shropshire Festivals say that early calculations show record numbers attended, estimated at 12,000 people for the two-day event.
The new addition of a silent disco proved popular with festival goers, with 500 headsets in almost constant use on the Saturday of the event.
The organisers reported that the biggest success of the event was the launch of their reusable beer cups, sponsored by DM Recruitment and Opus Vitae. They reduced their single use plastic waste by 83% compared to their first Oktoberfest event.
Alison Thomas from Zero Waste Events is responsible for the team who sort all waste on site to make sure as much is recycled as possible. She said, “I am so thankful to Shropshire Festivals and the sponsor for making this happen.
“At the first Shropshire Oktoberfest we collected 150 bags of plastic waste and at this event there was just 25 bags in total. This is a fantastic result and has made a serious impact. The reduction also allowed us more time to focus on sorting food waste which reduced the overall waste even further.”
Beth Heath, Shropshire Festival’s Director of Fun commented on the new scheme, “The success of the Shrewsbury Cup was a great inspiration for our new scheme. I have been eager to get it off the ground for some time, and it was great to see thousands of people getting on board with the new beer cups.
“The feedback we got from the festival goers was very supportive. Everyone was really happy to use the cups, keep them throughout the event and return them at the end. We have thousands of cups which will now be washed and ready to use at our next festival. Making our festivals zero waste is very important to the ethos of our business. We want to bring Shropshire great events with minimal environmental impact, and this simple reusable cup scheme achieves just that.”
The festival brought together brewers from across the region to serve up their beers, alongside Hencote’s wine bar, a rum shack, prosecco parlour, and Gindifferent providing a gin bar and German beer stand.
Next year’s Shropshire Oktoberfest is set to take place on Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd October 2020.
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