As the dust settles, we’re taking a moment to reminisce about what made this year’s event so special.
If you are new around here and need a quick summary, the Castle Rock Yard Party is an annual celebration featuring amazing live music, standout beers and delicious street food.
This year, we had five fantastic food vendors: Dukes Po Boy’s, Gaucho Stu, Tough Mary’s Bakehouse, Castle Rock Kitchen and the Deep Vat Fryer. Plus, two bars offering a range of beers and ciders from some of the best breweries and cidermakers from across the country and beyond, pouring on both keg and cask.
The festival bar had 20 cask beers pouring at any one time, 28 keg lines, more on reserve and nearly 20 traditional ciders. Outside, the Quick Serve Bar boasted prosecco on draught, lager, more cider, Castle Rock Beer Gin served with Franklin’s and cocktails. Between the two, queues flowed as fast as we could pour the drinks – and we poured a lot of drinks!
First to go was the Beak x Slice Culture collab, ‘Pineapple DDH IPA’. We sold out of ‘Son of a Peach’, our Pilot Project iced tea inspired saison, shortly followed by our collab with Turning Point, ‘The Grape Unknown’, a white grape IPA.
Other customer favourites included Funky Fluid’s ‘Gelato: Tropical Shake’ and Yonder’s ‘Honeycomb Double Berry Ripple’. The ‘Tzatziki Sour’ by Orbit was also incredibly popular (and rightly so!).
Cask-wise, it didn’t take long for us to sell out of Deya’s ‘General Nebulous Thoughts’ or Pentrich’s ‘Big in Japan’. Anthology’s ‘Biscuit Mild’ and Brass Castle’s ‘Rhubarb and Custard’ mild also went down a treat.
As always, we had the incredible Revolution Sounds sorting out the soundtrack for the weekend. A huge thank you to Dusty 4 Track, The Score, Rhythm Eaters, The Idolins, DJ Hypnotoad, Fat Digester, Seas Of Mirth, Grain, The New Originals, Days Of Tomorrow and our very own The Edge for making it a Yard Party to remember!
It was particularly nice to welcome back The Idolins on Friday, who played our first ever Yard Party seven years ago. And to have our very own brewery manager, Jon Edger, opening the proceedings on Saturday, playing 2-tone and Mo Town on the decks. It was about 8pm when the good old Seas of Mirth tug of war broke out in front of the stage. And only Fat Digester could follow that up, closing the night with a fantastic set featuring no less than four guest guitarists!
Castle Rock App users could ‘Check In’ to the festival, gaining access to the live beer menu, the music line up, food menus and more. Oh, and everyone that checked in was entered into a prize draw to win £50 worth of points to spend in our pubs too! (A big Congrats to Mark!)
We want to extend a heartfelt thank you to all the lovely people who came along to celebrate with us. Your support means the world to us!
A big thank you also goes out to everyone at Castle Rock that worked so hard to make it happen. Also, to All Truck PLC for providing the stage, the fantastic food vendors and brilliant bands. Without you guys, this event wouldn’t have been possible!
Same again next year…? 😉
Please let us know about your Yard Party experience and how we can improve for next time.
Your feedback is massively appreciated!
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