Rail Ale 2017 lets the train take the strain as it adds new attractions to this year’s Festival
Highlights of this year’s event will include a prosecco bar and special train services calling at the unique Barrow Hill Roundhouse site. The event organisers have teamed up with rail tour operators Rail Operations Group, Vintage Trains and UK Railtours to offer visitors a very different way of getting to Rail Ale 2017.
Rail Ale 2017 will take place on Thursday 18th, Friday 19th and Saturday 20th May, opening from 12.00 noon until 11.00pm on all three days.
On offer at this year’s Festival will be over 300 beers from around the UK, with one of the bars dedicated to real ales closer to home, as well as a wide selection of increasingly popular craft keg beers, a cider bar, bottled beers from around the world and the new prosecco bar adding a little sparkle to the drinks menu.
In a first ever link up with Rail Operations Group and Vintage Trains a unique train service will call into the Festival on Friday 19th and Saturday 20th May. Two classic diesel locomotives will haul the special trains, picking up passengers from Derby, Chesterfield and Sheffield before heading into the Festival for a few hours of beer tasting, live music and cider drinking. For those Rail Ale fans coming from further afield, UK Railtours will be running a repeat of their sell out 2015 rail tour, bringing visitors from London and the South East by high speed train into the Festival on Thursday 18th May. Starting at London St Pancras the tour will pick up passengers at Luton Airport Parkway and Bedford before heading north to the delights of Rail Ale.
Visitors to Rail Ale 2017 will also be able to enjoy a wide ranging feast of music from some of the best local bands and solo artists in the region on the Main Stage and jazz and brass in the Café Bar Marquee. In between the music and the ever popular Rail Ale train rides on the Roundhouse site, the Festival food stalls will offer a selection of food to suit all tastes.
The dedicated free bus service will also be running from Chesterfield railway station throughout all three days.
Alexa Stott, Event co-organiser, said:-
“Rail Ale has evolved continuously since it started 16 years ago and we are looking forward to sharing our new ideas for this year’s Festival with our visitors whilst retaining the unique attractions from previous years that make this one of the must-do events of the year.”
For detailed information on Rail Ale 2017 click here.
