Press release -
Paisley Beer Festival is back...with a difference
Paisley’s ever-popular beer festival is back for another outing – and this year it’s being served up with a side order of food.
The 28th Paisley Beer Festival – run by the Renfrewshire branch of the Campaign for Real Ale – will be in Paisley Town Hall from Wednesday 22 to Saturday 25 April.
The event is Scotland’s biggest real ale festival and every year attracts thousands from across the country to sample a wide selection of real beers, ales and ciders.
And this year for the first time it will run alongside a one-day food festival – organised by Renfrewshire Council – on the Saturday only.
Both events are taking place as part of Scotland’s Year of Food and Drink, supported by Event Scotland and Visit Scotland, which aims to showcase Scotland’s outstanding natural larder and exceptional natural produce.
The food festival will be in Abbey Close between noon and 6pm and includes the Slug in a Bottle Market, food/craft workshops, live music from Loud ‘n’ Proud, and kids' entertainment including TV's Mr Bloom.
Focusing on quality Scottish produce, the food festival also includes the usual twice-monthly Paisley Farmers’ Market just up the road at Paisley Cross, where visitors will be able to take in live cookery demos.
Meanwhile, the beer festival will take in a first of its own, with Renfrewshire CAMRA having added an all-new wine bar featuring speciality wines from across Scotland.
Renfrewshire’s Provost Anne Hall met with some of the members of the local CAMRA committee to help publicise the event, joined by Andy Hare of Hillington-based JAW Brew, this year’s glass sponsors.
She said: “The Paisley Beer Festival is real home-brewed success story, and the volunteers of Renfrewshire CAMRA deserve great credit for building such a popular and well-established event here in the town.
“We are delighted to be adding to the mix by adding the food festival, which will give families and others a reason to visit the town while it is busy for the beer festival.
“The Paisley Food Festival is an event we are looking to grow in the years to come as we build towards the town’s bid for UK City of Culture in 2021, which is just one of the ways we are using culture and events to drive regeneration.”
Bob McWilliam of Renfrewshire Branch CAMRA, who was one of the original organising CAMRA team 27 Paisley festivals ago in 1987, added:
“Next month's event will be the first time all the facilities within Paisley Town Hall will be used, which makes this the premier real ale festival in Scotland.
“This, with our partnership with Renfrewshire Council with the food festival is going to make it a real ale festival to remember."
Annique Armstrong, regional director for VisitScotland, said:
“We are delighted to support Paisley Beer Festival this year with funding from Scotland’s Year of Food and Drink.
“Hopefully the funding will help enhance this festival, which is a great event that aims to attract both locals and visitors to the area and is just one in this year’s calendar throughout the whole of Scotland.
“Food and drink plays an important role in the visitor experience, with £1 in every £5 being spent on it so I’d like to wish Paisley Beer Festival every success!”
For more info on the beer festival, visit www.paisleybeerfestival.org, and for more on Scotland’s Year of Food and Drink, visit www.VisitScotland.com/TasteScotland
Ends
For more information, call Colin Orr, Renfrewshire Council Communications Unit, on 0141 618 7348.
For regular updates on local news and events follow @RenCouncilNews on Twitter or our page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/renfrewshirecouncil.
Photo caption:
Caption is Renfrewshire's Provost Anne Hall meeting members of Renfrewshire CAMRA and sponsor Jaw Brew, outside Paisley Town Hall.
Topics
- Tourism
Categories
- year of food and drink
Regions
- Scotland
Notes to Editors
- Follow us on twitter: @visitscotnews
- VisitScotland is Scotland’s national tourism organisation. Its core purpose is to maximise the economic benefit of tourism to Scotland.
- The organisation has three key roles:
- To market Scotland to all parts of the world to attract visitors
- To provide information – and inspiration – to visitors and potential visitors so they get the best out of a visit to Scotland
- To provide quality assurance to visitors and quality advice to the industry and partners to help the industry meet and strive to exceed customer expectations
- VisitScotland works together with tourism businesses to make tourism a success for everyone and ensure the industry continues to grow.
- The organisation employs 700 people and has offices and VisitScotland Information Centres across Scotland.
- According to a recent Deloitte study, the tourism economy supports 270,000 jobs in Scotland in 20,000 diverse businesses. The same study calculates that the tourism economy contributes £11 billion annually (direct and indirect impact, including day visits) and supports around 10 per cent of employment in Scotland. Almost 16 million tourists take overnight trips to Scotland.
- For VisitScotland’s press releases go to http://www.visitscotland.org/media_centre.aspx, tourism statistics and frequently asked questions go to http://www.visitscotland.org/
- Where possible, a Gaelic speaker will be made available for broadcast interviews on request (Far an tèid iarraidh, agus far am bheil sin nar comas, bruidhinnidh neach le Gàidhlig aig agallamh)
- For holiday information on Scotland go to www.visitscotland.com
- For information about business tourism in Scotland go to www.conventionscotland.com
Year of Food and Drink 2015
- 2015 is the Year of Food and Drink, a celebration of Scotland’s natural larder and the role that food and drink plays in shaping our economic success.
- Scotland generates over £2.5m per day through food and drink tourism.
- A series of themed months will create an appetite for key areas of Scotland’s food and drink industries – from seafood and whisky to berries and high-quality meat
- For more information, visit www.visitscotland.com/tastescotland
