Local News: 5th Annual Hop Festival

This weekend sees thousands of visitors descend on our usually sleepy town for a fairly unusual festival.

Bromyard's Hop Festival was first held back in 2011, and was meant as a means of celebrating the area's hop growing history which has been part of the landscape since 1577. Now in its 5th year, the festival has grown massively and is now looked forward to by all our fellow Bromyardians.

The highlight of the festival is undoubtedly the hop pocket race, where teams of 4 carry a hop pocket through the lined streets. The races begin at around 4.30pm.

The team from Wye Valley Brewery

There are events taking place all-day (10am-4pm) such as entertainment on the town green (including a climbing frame), exhibition at the Local History Centre as well as a balloon modeller roaming the streets. In the Public Hall, there will be the sale of hop bines, garlands, pillows etc, along with 'Chilli Zoo' (marmalades, relishes, oils, jams etc.) along with refreshments all day.

Meanwhile, the Conquest Theatre have a display of photographs in their foyer, but a team of actors from the county have wrote a play specially for the festival, and this will be performed at 12.30pm and 2.30pm.

A full programme of events can be found here, meanwhile more information about the festival can be found on their website here.

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