Wirral Food & Drink Festival
Web – http://www.wirralfoodfestival.co.uk/

Local brewers supply food festival, pouring pints into eco-friendly glasses.

I am not a plastic cup

Sandwiched between Liverpool & North Wales, The Wirral Peninsula managed to avoid the worst of the bad weather we’ve come to expect of a summer Bank Holiday weekend. Several other major outdoor events in the area were forced to close, but the successful farm-based Wirral Food & Drink Festival ploughed on regardless.

Based at Claremont Farm, Bebington, the festival attracts around 20,000 visitors every year. Now in its 7th year, the festival is supported by a team of volunteers, helping to promote healthy, fresh local produce in the perfect venue of a working family farm. As well as artisan food producers, chefs’ demonstrations, kids’ activities, live music and a dancing sheep show, the festival also has a local beer and cider tent.

The festival showcased beers from members of SIBA (the Society Of Independent Brewers) such as Macclesfield-based Red Willow Brewery’s ‘Wreckless’ pale ale, current Champion Beer of Cheshire, and local favourite, Brimstage Brewery’s multi-award winning ‘Trappers Hat’.

The beer tent is organised by Mike McGuigan (also a brewer at Brimstage Brewery, a mile or so away). In previous years the festival has found a local microbrewery to sponsor the branded glasses for their beer & cider tent, but sadly in the current difficult economic times, this year they couldn’t find one.

Instead the festival committee made the decision to go for plastic glasses, but given the festival’s green credentials, they looked for an environmentally friendly solution and came up with Biopac UK Ltd. Biopac supply biodegradable food & drink containers, including beer glasses, produced from corn starch, which once finished with, will become compost within three months.

Some festival regulars said they really missed collecting this year’s souvenir glass. Mike McGuigan responded “We hope our visitors will understand the reasons behind the change of glasses this year. While they’re not the same as a standard glass, we think Biopac’s glasses are a great option for any outdoor event. They’re a few pence dearer than a normal plastic glass, but we were determined to find an eco-friendly solution, and Biopac certainly came up with the goods.”

SIBA and Biopac have joined forces to produce green ‘glasses’ like the ones used at the Wirral Food & Drink Fest. The half-pint and pint glasses are over-sized, lined & CE-stamped, plus 100% biodegradable. They come branded with the SIBA logo & a statement about their innovative green credentials.