Shropshire Oktoberfest, one of the county’s biggest parties, returns to return to Shrewsbury’s Quarry on Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd October.
Shropshire Festivals have reported completely selling out of tickets for the Chrisbeon VIP tent across both days, but standard tickets are still available online and can be bought on the gate on both days whilst capacity allows.
Independent brewers from the region and beyond will be serving up to 150 different real ales. CAMRA will be running a ‘Hopportunity Bar’ to represent some breweries unable to attend, along with some of their weird and wonderful top picks. CAMRA will also be judging beers from each brewer, and will crown the winning beer ‘Shropshire’s Choice’ on Friday evening. There will be lager, cider and perry on tap too.
There will be wine from Kerry Vale Vineyard, rum from The Buttermarket and gin and tipples from Gindifferent. A selection of independent street food vendors will be available for hungry festival goers.
Friday’s festival will have a gin tasting event from The Shropshire Distillery and 32 sea shanty singing pirates!
On Saturday there will be barrels of laughs to go with the beers in the Connexis Comedy Club.
The comedy line-up includes one of the most in demand headline acts – Eddy Brimson; winner of the first ever Jongleurs Competition and a seasoned regular on the circuit – Susan Murray; Gerry’s K’s anecdotal, observational and refreshing comedy; Sam Harland’s humorously cynical yet optimistic slant on life after rehab and detention centres; and one of the most popular modern-day Scottish comedians – Vladimir McTavish.
The award-winning writer/performer Molly Naylor (creator and co-writer of Sky One’s After Hours) will also be performing her lyrical and funny spoken-word show about ambition, altruism and how to be medium good – ‘Stop Trying to be Fantastic’.
Bespoke jewellers Woodings & Co are sponsoring the live music stage. On both days the music line-up features lederhosen wearing, Oktoberfest favourite – Vorsprung Durch Oompah. Friday’s acts include Untamed Shrew, The Follicles, and Five O’clock Hero.
The Saturday music line-up will deliver sets from Danny Jones, Groove Dynamite, The Endings, Chasing August, Dirty Rockin Scoundrels, The Vertigo Band, Asparagus & The Kilburn Habit and Call of the Kraken.
Festival goers can pick their own music in the silent disco tent, sponsored by Throgmorton Associates Wealth Management, and have their 5 minutes of fame in Volvo Shrewsbury’s Carpool Karaoke tipi.
Local award-winning barbershop team Hinces will be providing haircuts on both evenings, and DM Recruitment is providing the re-usable beer cups to reduce plastic waste on site.
Shropshire Festival’s Director of Fun, Beth Heath, said, “The party of the year has been sorely missed. It will be great to return to the Quarry with our fourth Oktoberfest event!
“There is so much we have missed over the last 18 months so we have decided that on Saturday we will have 30 minutes of music dedicated to every missed celebration. They’ll be everything from Burns Night right through until Christmas. We’ll finish off with the entire beer tent singing Auld Lang Syne. It will be an amazing moment, and absolutely needed after such a rubbish time!
“Our ticket sales have been going crazy this year, especially with our VIP tickets. But fear not, there are discounted standard tickets still available online, and there will be standard priced tickets available until we reach capacity.
“Our motto for this year is bringing the fun back, and Shropshire Oktoberfest will definitely do that. We hope you can join us!”
Discounted advance tickets can be purchased from www.shropshireoktoberfest.co.uk.
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