Bath's first cider fest is all but drunk dry

IT WASN'T so much drink up as drink dry thy cider at a festival over the weekend.

Cider lovers downed around 5.000 pints at the event in Bath - prompting organisers to search for emergency supplies.

More than 2,000 people attended the Pavilion's first-ever cider festival, enjoying the music from The Mangledwurzels tribute group and choosing from a range of 70 draught and 12 bottled ciders.

It was such a success that organiser Chris Lilley, the Pavilion's catering manager, has already pledged to put on another.

He said: "It will definitely happen next year, we were thinking it might be nice to be outdoors somewhere in the summer.

"There has been a big upsurge in the popularity of cider recently, Apparently it is really good for you.

"There has been a rise in the bottled ciders, people drink cider in pubs more and more and then they want to try something different.

"People were up and dancing and jigging to the band. It was nice to see people enjoying themselves and shouting for more from the band.

"It was an absolutely stunning event but I'm exhausted.

Some of the cider sold out on Friday night and Mr Lilley's son Marc was sent on a 100-mile trip around Somerset on Saturday to collect more.

"We didn't quite run out but it was a very close," said Mr Lilley.

"There was a great atmosphere and absolutely no trouble."