Festival raises £40k for local charities

The money raised at the popular four day event will be divided between the Rotherham Hospice, Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity, Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice and the Magna educational trust, with each receiving £10,000.

Baa’s of Steel, which took place at Magna, saw more than 11,000 beer lovers support the popular festival. Visitors enjoyed real ales from Cumbria, Scotland, and West Midlands, as well as plenty of home grown ales chosen from across Yorkshire.

In addition to supporting local charities, funds will also be used to invest in new equipment, replacing old and worn out bars and beer pumps – some of which have been used since the festival began in 1992.

Hot on the heels of their success organisers headed down to Howarth Lodge Livery Centre offering a sneak preview of the plans for next year’s festival.

Festival organiser Stephen Burns said: “The Rotherham Real Ale and Music festival is not only a chance for people to enjoy real ale and live music, but it’s a genuine community event that helps to put the town on the map.”

“Over the year’s we’ve developed a terrific following, and see regular visitors to the festival travel the length and breadth of the country to support the popular event.”

“It’s a genuine community festival, that’s supported by businesses through sponsorship and volunteers giving up their time to help set up, staff the bars and of course take it down and I’d like to personally thank each and every person who came down to Magna and contributed to the success of this year’s festival.”

“Of course, we don’t just want to rest on our laurels and we’ve set ourselves a very difficult challenge of trying to further build on the success of the event next year.”

Stephen is already searching for volunteers and sponsors for next year’s festival. To find out more about sponsorship opportunities email [email protected]