‘Becoming the next big place to be’ - Abbeydale Beer Festival celebrates five year anniversary in Sheffield
Sheffielders enjoyed a massive street party on Abbeydale Road
The much-loved Abbeydale Road Beer Festival returned over the weekend, drawing in audiences from Sheffield and beyond for four days of drinking, eating, partying and live music.
Spanning four days from Thursday, July 30 to Sunday, August 2, the event marked the festival's five-year anniversary and was the biggest to date with as many as 20 different venues getting involved.
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Organiser and co-founder Nicole Jewitt, who is based at Cole’s Corner said: “The vibes have been really great, there’s been no trouble at all, everyone was just having a really good time.
“I think the event comes at a great time. In the summer when there’s not as many students around and when there’s lots going on like Tramlines.”
Nicole went on to describe the evolution of the festival and how it has changed over the last five years.
She added: “It’s gone from a fairly small beer trail into one of the biggest bar crawls in Sheffield. This year’s theme has been North vs South - where people compare the ales that hail from different regions of the country.
“There’s been a vote on that from our ale lovers and we’ll reveal the results later this week.”
Nicole believes the event highlights the potential of the area and how it is fast becoming one of the to-be places in Sheffield for people of all ages.
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She said: “It’s grown into something much bigger than just beer and an ale trail. We had live music at the Ballroom, lots of independent vendors - and the new Tapas bar Styr was inundated with customers.
“We had people from all over the country aswell. Not just Sheffield. I think one of the furthest was a group of former university students from Edinburgh, who came down for a reunion in fancy dress. They were really funny.
“Another group did the trail by trying out all the non-alcoholic beverages. There’s loads of ways of enjoying it.”
Nicole is hopeful that the festival will continue Abbeydale Road’s rise into a real hotspot at weekends.
She added: “I think a lot of students only really discover the area on their second and third year - and we’d like people to know about it as soon as we can.
“We think it’s becoming the next big place to be in Sheffield.”