Ben and Jerry's Festival 2011 - Free Ice Cream Anyone??

Fancy a day of music, funfairs and free-ice cream? Then the Ben and Jerrys Sundee festival is for you.  Now in its 7^th year, this is an event that just keeps getting better and defiantly gives you a double scoop of fun with the addition of a second venue in Heaton Park, Manchester this year.

Fun and games were had by all on the free funfair rides; perfect for the big kids amongst us.  Nothing like eating your body weight in free Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and then getting on a carousel!



Happy Little Lady
(Complete with Essex Girl Sunglasses)



Music plays all day, and this year the line up was brilliant.  Steve Cradock, Fun Loving Criminals, Ash and Ocean Colour Scene kept us entertained all afternoon and really got the crowd going.  Being a smaller festival makes it the perfect place to take children (under 5’s go free) and my little lady loved dancing around to the live music, she’s taking after her mother already!

Seeing James Buckley, who plays Jay in award winning The Inbetweeners, make an appearance on stage with Steve Craddock and then again with Ocean Colour scene was worth the entrance fee all on its own.  Turns out he’s quite the guitar player and is performing on Steve Cradock’s new solo Album Peace City West.

Alongside the music and funfair rides there was much more on offer. City Farm were on location with their cute animals, the lovely people from Dorset Cereal handing out boxes of delicious muesli, toe wrestling competitions, coconut shy, RSPCA stand, Face paining and a Pimms arena.  And as always, the Ben and Jerrys Sundae Festival was climate neutral so we could indulge guilt free in our free Fairtrade ice cream to our heart's content.

Tickets for Ben and Jerry’s Festival normally go on sale March time – and with all of this for just £17 a ticket this year, I will most certainly be front of the queue to get tickets again for next year!

Chelmsford Beer Festival 2011

I love local produce, I love small producers and I love the personal touch.  Regular readers of my blog will already know I often frequent local festivals of food and drink to seek out the best of what this fine region has to offer.  The CAMRA Chelmsford beer festival is one such event that I look forward to year after year.  With over 350 real ales, 120 ciders and a large selection of local wines this year, all from independent brewery’s many from the Anglian region it fitted the bill for me perfectly.  Although At 6 months pregnant I was going to be unable to test out all the wonderful beverages on offer this year so I took along an army of willing taste testers to do my dirty work for me.



My Taste Testers
Rambo, Me, Mark and Mel

 The weather left a lot to be desired but we didn’t let it dampen out spirits.  My taste testers embraced their roles whole heartedly and were soon trying out all manner of weird and wonderful concoctions.   The bartenders were great, very knowledgeable and extremely helpful to us novices, and all volunteers.

Alongside the alcohol there were food stalls selling an array of food such as hog roast, BBQ, Thai and Italian.  For the children (and the big kids amongst us) there was also face painting and a couple of rides.

Live music was performed throughout the day; I especially enjoyed the Jazz in the beer tent.  Coldplace, a Coldplay tribute act, were the main event of the evening and they did well to get the crowd going right till the end!

All in all, despite the rain, it was a great day – and there were many sore heads the next morning as a testament to that.  I would strongly recommend a visit to a CAMRA beer festival this summer; a top day out and a good way to support small producers and CAMRA’s campaign for Real Ale. For details of up coming CAMRA events in your area visit www.camra.org.uk