Every Northwich venue serving piña coladas during the festival

Well I certainly hope so, as come next Saturday (August 17) Northwich will be overflowing with the tropical cocktail.

The popular Piña Colada Festival makes a welcome return, with businesses around the town currently busy putting the final touches to their recipes.

Alex Pop and the team at the Salty Dog will be up bright and early, carving out 500 real pineapples to serve their piña coladas in.

“By about 11am none of us have fingerprints because the prickles rip out gloves and the acid burns our skin, but it's 100 per cent worth it for the funnest day in town every year!” said Alex.

“The event has been great for us and all the other bars in town, the atmosphere is great and the local people have all really taken to it.

“What's great is that it's a day everyone can enjoy, there's loads of family entertainment and alcohol-free options, so it's a fully inclusive and packed full of loads of great entertainment.

“Once it's done, none of our staff want to see another pineapple again for 12 months, but it's an absolutely fantastic event and we love being a part of it!”

The Salty Dog's Alex Pop and Dom Ogden preparing the cocktails at last year's festival 

Equally as excited is That South African Place in Barons Quay.

Their resident DJ will be getting the party started at 11am before the outside bar area opens, serving both alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails, pineapple beer and burgers.

Owners Rayner and Lynika Muller said: “Piña Colada Festival is the one day we look forward to! It's bigger than Christmas for us local businesses!

“This year, we are passionate about bringing a bigger and better party to Northwich with our delicious piña coladas.

“We will party until midnight, and That South African Place will become the tropical hub in Northwich. We promise 2024 to be a moerse lekker one!”

As a speciality rum bar, the Bird and Hat will be hoping to set the bar for piña coladas.

Manager Vicky Booth said: “With us being the finest rum bar in town we will be serving up hand-shaken piña coladas that we serve all year round.

“This year of course we will continue to serve our piña coladas in our unique reusable souvenir cup! This year will be the third incarnation with a different design each year.

“We are so excited to welcome families from Northwich and surrounding areas to our quirky pub for a day full of great vibes and awesome music!”

Offering something a little different, Goblin Coffee and Beer has partner with Hush Brewing to create the NEPA Colada – a piña colada beer.

They will also be serving up Lilley’s piña colada cider and ‘the fastest piña coladas in town’, with donations to St Luke’s for every cocktail sold.

Manager Danny McCooey said: “It's a daunting event for us obviously as a small independent but we work hard to offer high quality and high speed, we're excited to break our sales record, which was last year's Piña Colada Festival.”

Goblin Beer and Coffee has teamed up with Hush Brewing to create a piña colada beer 

Elsewhere, one of Northwich’s newest venues is looking forward to taking part for the first time.

Dockyard will have live music from 1pm along with a menu boasting pineapple and Captain Morgan BBQ chicken wings and a special ‘tropic like it’s hot’ pizza.

Dan Baker, general manager, said: “We are so excited for this year’s Piña Colada Festival!

“We hadn’t quite opened last year, we just missed it, so we couldn’t wait to get involved this year!

“We have tons going on here at Dockyard and it will be great to see lots of people out and about in Northwich. “

Every venue taking part in the Piña Colada Festival* 

• Abda Café - 6 Crown Street
• Barons - High Street
• Bear - Unit 4, Barons Quay
• Board Beans Café - 79 Witton Street
• Bombay Quay - Hayhurst Quay
• Charlie's Café & Sandwich Bar - 83 Witton Street
• Culinary Concept (That South African Place) - Weaver Point Way, Barons Quay
• Goblin Coffee & Beer - 3 Witton Walk
• Grape & Bean - 15 Market Street
• Kanya - Waters Cross, Watling Street
• Phase 1 - 78 Witton Street
• Salthouse NW - Hayhurst Quay
• Sew Easy - 80 Witton Street
• Sunny BBQ - 96 Witton Street
• The Bird & Hat - 12a Bull Ring
• The Bull Ring NW - 5-7 High Street
• The Dockyard BQ - Unit 5, Barons Quay
• The Penny Black - 110 Witton Street
• The Quayside - 129 Witton Street
• The Salty Dog - 23 High Street
• The Swinging Witch - 3 Crown Street
• Vinnies - 5 Market Street
• Wildwood - Unit 6, Barons Quay
• Witton Chimes - 122 Witton Street
• ZaZa Cafe - 57 Witton Street

*List provided by Northwich BID