Ruddington’s now famous annual real ale and cider festival is happening again from Thursday to Sunday this week. The four day “RuddFest” offers over 150 beers and ciders, alongside wines, Prosecco and spirits throughout the village PLUS live entertainment, a big variety of food and fun activities for the kids.
The idea of regular beer festivals in Ruddington began at The White Horse in 2006 when the then tenants Tony Beecroft and Jez Curtis decided to make good use of their generous beer garden for a few extra barrels of real ale and cider from time to time. Soon, some of our other village pubs joined in and the village wide “RuddFest” concept was born! In the summer of 2014 Ruddington Parish Council granted permission to also have a dedicated beer marquee and stalls on The Green to supplement the offer in the pubs. Since then, this annual event has gone from strength to strength!
This year’s RuddFest is again centred around The Green but also hosted by The Three Crowns on Easthorpe Street, The White Horse on Church Street, The Victoria Tavern on Wilford Road and The Frame Breakers on High Street – all with extra real ales and ciders on tap.
On The Green the event officially runs from midday until late each day – from Thursday 31st May to Sunday 3rd June – but often finishes a little earlier on the Sunday if the real ales and ciders in the main beer tent have run out! 
The Castle Rock bar is back for 2018 with a selection of their own real ales along with lager and cider. Organiser John Noble‘s NEW city centre venture “Gincident” is sponsoring the whole event and will be serving 22 different gins! John says: “These will be served in some lovely white polycarbonate goblet glasses (refundable deposit for glass) as we are aiming to move away from disposable plastics on The Green. We also have bio straws this year made from crushed shells. For the beer and cider lovers, CAMRA members will be receiving a 10p pint discount on production of their card.”
If you fancy some food whilst chilling out on The Green you won’t be disappointed. There’ll be Indian snacks and curries by The Three Spices Restaurant, whilst Fred from Gino’s Ristorante will be providing other catering including burgers, chips and hot dogs. You can keep the kids amused with a bouncy castle, pocket-money stall and face painting. “Live” music this year comes courtesy of Rebecca Lomas playing acoustic Jazz & Modern covers on the Thursday from 8pm – whilst on the Friday and Saturday from 7pm local DJ Alan Whitehead will be playing both modern and classics tunes to “get the party started!”
There’s an added attraction at The White Horse on the Thursday evening with their own special “Gin Night” in the Beer Garden from 7.30pm, offering up to 40 different gins to try. But this needs to be booked in advance. The pub is then offering different “live” acts playing on their “car park stage” throughout the weekend (see left). At The Frame Breakers their beer festival marquee is again being complemented by a visiting vintage Pilsner Urquell truck in the car park. The Victoria Tavern has real ales from the barrel back in its beer garden.
Festival goers are strongly urged NOT to drink and drive. Ruddington’s frequent Navy 3 or Green 10 buses run by Nottingham City Transport run late into the night and can be caught directly to and from The Green – AND there are stops near all of our village pubs (see map below). If you buy a Grouprider ticket for £5.00 then that will cover your return trip by bus from anywhere within Nottingham for up to 5 people (minimum 1 adult, maximum 2 adults). This is a very cost effective option for a family visit – or even just for 2 adults travelling together.
Visitors please note that, due to new licensing conditions agreed with Rushcliffe Borough Council, no alcohol can to be brought onto the village green during RuddFest. It must be purchased on site. For your safety there is a new perimeter fence to enforce this rule and to control numbers entering if necessary.
You can see the full list of real ales and ciders on offer this year at all the RuddFest venues >>HERE<<.
