The Witcombe Cider Festival has developed into one of the leading festivals in Gloucestershire, which is quite surprising when you discover the inaugural festival was held only six years ago. At the end of Summer 2012 the very first Witcombe Cider Festival took place at the village cricket club. 200 cider and music fans gathered in a marquee to enjoy a selection of ciders and music performed by a few local bands. Since then the popularity of the festival has skyrocketed, so much so that chart-topping bands and performers have regularly appeared at the event, held on the outskirts of Gloucester.

This year’s festival gets underway on Friday 24th August, with dozens of top-class musical acts booked to perform over the three-day bank holiday weekend. Claire Magri, who has been involved in the festival for five years, says excitement for this year’s event has been building up for the last few weeks. “We’re over the moon with the quality of musicians that are appearing at this year’s festival. Our aim is to create a festival experience with great music and great ciders, making August bank holiday something we can all look forward to.

“We’ve got so much going on over the three days. The festival starts on Friday evening with a party and dance music, it’s ideal for people wanting to let their hair down after a long week in work. Then we go into Saturday when the festival really gets going, we’ve got fun fair rides, children’s activities, circus skills and a huge number of stalls selling amazing food and drink and of course all of our fantastic bands and solo artists that will be playing.

“The music is very much the highlight of the weekend and this year we’ve got some amazing performers booked. It shows how far we’ve come that we’re able to attract the likes of Ella Eyre, MNEK and Shola Ama to sing at our festival. There will also be lots of amazingly talented local bands getting on stage, it’s very satisfying to offer them opportunities to play in front of a big crowd.”

Needless to say there will be a huge selection of alcoholic beverages to enjoy, including several locally produced ciders. Claire continued: “Anyone wanting to enjoy a glass of cider should visit the Craft Cider Bar where there will be a huge selection of ciders. We don’t just sell cider though, there’s other bars selling beers and wines as well. We’ve also got fantastic food for sale in our Food Village.

“It’s nice to have an event that everyone can look forward to. I feel proud that we can offer the people of Gloucestershire such a fun and enjoyable event. We’ve worked hard over the years to create a family-friendly festival, we hope to carry on in the years ahead.”