Tough Decision Made to Cancel the 2020 "Chuffed to Bits" Beer Festival 

Fans of last year's "Chuffed To Bits" Beer festival will be disappointed to learn that the Save Our Stute group have decided to cancel the repeat of the event for this year and hold it again next year instead all being well.

"It hasn't been an easy decision to make.  We enjoyed the festival so much last year and it seemed we were offering something that wasn't going on anywhere else in Shildon and giving people a chance to try some different tasty ales and lagers from across our region.  However we're finding that with the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus and watching all the other beer festivals in the region being cancelled it seemed most sensible to follow suit, even though ours was lined up for October so we could have waited to see how things develop.

The event just takes so much planning and is quite expensive to host and promote, so it seems the sensible thing to do.  But we'll definitely bring it back when we can safely do so."

The festival made its debut last year when in partnership with the Three Brothers Brewery at Stockton, and staffed entirely by unpaid volunteers, "Chuffed" offered a selection of over twenty beers and lagers as well as two nights of superb entertainment.  

Although the next festival will be delayed, we're looking at diversifying the product range here at the Institute to start stocking a few more locally sourced and produced ales.  One of the changes going on throughout the Covid crisis has been that more people have been taking an interest in supporting local businesses and buying their local produce.  though we'll always stock the favourites that our regular visitors love, we're very much in favour of this more local principle - so let's give it a try and see what happens.

Cheers

(18th Jun 2020)