BEER, boats and bands brightened up the October days in Middlewich last weekend as crowds gathered for a double festival.

The town hosted its seventh annual Middlewich Beer Festival and its first Middlewich Boat Rally on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The beer festival, organised by Middlewich and District Round Table and held at the Royal British Legion, in Lewin Street, held its busiest Saturday lunchtime session to date thanks to the added visitors to the boat ralley.

John Humphreys, Middlewich and District Round Table’s fundraising officer, said: “The boat rally helped to bring more people into town at the weekend and if there’s another one next year we might have to order a couple more casks – we were slightly concerned on the Saturday evening that we might run out.”

By the end of the last session on the Saturday night, 32 of the 40 beers and ciders had sold out.

John said: “Each evening session was sold out and with the kind assistance of Dave Thompson, Middlewich Town Council events co-ordinator, who organised the live music for Saturday lunchtime to coincide with the boat rally, the Saturday lunchtime was the busiest yet with more than 120 attendees.”

The event raises money for the Poppy Appeal and local charities and this year’s raffle alone raised £711, which will be match funded by Barclays.

John said: “It will have raised several thousand pounds, but it’s difficult to put a figure on it yet.”

He added: “Despite the doom and gloom of the economic climate we had as many sponsors as ever and quite a lot of new ones.

“It really was fantastic.”

The Middlewich Boat Rally attracted more than 40 boats, which moored up on the Trent and Mersey and Shropshire Union canals for the weekend.

A group of seven town pubs, including Big Lock, Boars Head, Cheshire Cheese, Choklat and Kandi Bar, Kinderton Hotel, White Horse and White Bear, each hosted music, poetry and sing-a-long events throughout the weekend.

Organiser Dave Thompson said: “It’s very early to say how successful it was but some of the pubs I’ve spoken to were very pleased.”