View Full Version : Support a worthy cause over a couple of beers
For anyone living close to the Atherton, Wigan, Bolton, Leigh and Manchester areas I would like to invite you to our beer festival, the Bent and Bongs Beer Bash, January 27 - 29.
I donate quite a bit of time each year to help organise this event as all the proceeds are used to support local charities and good causes. This year our main beneficiary is Wigan and Leigh Hospice who provice specialist support to people with non-curable life-threatening illnesses. We are also supporting Childflight, a children's charity based out of Manchester airport, and will be donating a chunk of the proceeds to the Tsunami Earthquake Appeal. The Three Rivers brewery in Stockport are producing a special beer for us, Black Moon Stout, which is a recreated brew from their daughter brewery in Bali. It seems quite apt and appropriate that we are donating all proceeds from the sale of this beer to the Tsunami Appeal.
We are in our 16th year now and last year we became one of the UK's top-20 beer festivals. To give an idea of scale, over the last few weeks we have ordered somewhere around 3,500 branded glasses and well over 5000 litres of the world's best beer. The event is loads of fun, and where else can you get to try a few good pints and at the same time support good and worthwhile causes.
If you have an evening free why not head over and join us for a beer or two. Full details are on our website: http://www.bentnbongs.com
Special thanks to John for giving me the OK to post this rather blatant piece of advertising.
MaggieAllan
07-01-2005, 19:42
Well you can count on my husband and friends as they go every year...it's a mans night out normally, but I'll tag along and get the other wives to join in this year.[msnwink]
Let me know by DM where you will be if you help run it and we can meet up...perhaps you could post a photo afterwards??? In fact it could be a nice meet up for several of us...how about it guys!!!!
BTW, for anyone local who hasn't tried it I can definately recommend it as a good time for all....but be careful trying out all the different beers. One year it was icy and one of the party had double bambi legs.
[drinkbeer] and [drinkpepsi] available
MaggieAllan
10-01-2005, 14:39
Just to update everyone, we are going to this event on the Saturday afternoon...hope to see a few of you there[grouphug]
Saturday afternoon is a great time to head for the festival. It's not quite as full-on as the evenings and has a more chilled and laid-back feel to it.
It's also the only time when we are not at the full capacity of the hall so we can get the tables and chairs out. It will be a great place to hang out and talk Florida for a while.
BTW - Does anyone know of any Florida microbrewerys? We have some Anchor Steam beer (California) available this year. We had it on draught a couple of years ago!! It would be wicked if I could get my hands on some Florida brewed beer.
I would have love to have come, but I will be packing for Florida. It would have been a good way to celebrate my birthday.
I organised a Sale at the Primary school where I teach, we raised £1600 for the appeal. Not bad for one afternoon.
Kaz
LiesaAnna
10-01-2005, 17:15
[clap][clap][clap] very well done Kaz!!!!!
said they shouldve organized somewhere in the middle of the country where we wll had more or less equal miles to get there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hope you gonna have a fab time in florida!!!!
It's gonna be hard.....but i'll try![sporty]
LiesaAnna
10-01-2005, 17:40
well tough job but hey someones gotta do it!!!!!
when you going?????[msnwink]
MaggieAllan
10-01-2005, 18:06
that's fantastic Kaz..well done
Sure you wouldn't rather be with us than packing!!
If the packing could do itself, I would come up and meet you, John would go for the beer.......21 days to go...19 days to birthday.........20 days to the Hilton at Gatwick.[8D][clap]We've set up wireless laptop so I will be able to keep in touch.
Well thats as long as I get it to work...you know my luck, ha ha[lucky]
Oh, and I've only got to lose a stone and a half before I go!!!
LiesaAnna
11-01-2005, 01:06
that all????[msnwink]
Phil and Mel
11-01-2005, 01:10
Snapper,
Just to let you know. I live in Orrell but will not be able to make it for that weekend[msnsad][msnsad]
With regard to your question about microbreweries, I will DM you a link I found on t'internet[drinkbeer]
Hope it all goes well.....
I've just found out that we have Peter Reid (ex England footballer) coming to open the festival on the Thursday and do a couple of hours behind one of the bars. I know he's not the biggest celebrity in the world, but it's the first time we've scored (pun intended) anyone famous. Should make for some good PR with the local newspapers.
Shame you can't make it Phil and Mel. Maybe next year.
Phil and Mel
19-01-2005, 00:50
One of the greatest midfielders of the 80's....WOW.....although I am a little bit biased as an Everton fan!!! Would love to meet the bloke [msnsad][msnsad]
We live in Hindley, Wigan so will definitely give it a go. When are other OV'ers going as it would be great to meet up. Drew will be wearing his Grumpy baseball cap so come up and say hi.
We hope to be there Saturday night.
Hi Linda and Drew. Great news!!
Maggie and her gang are heading over on Saturday afternoon I think.
I don't get to escape from behind the bar much. Do come say hello though. I'll be the one looking flustered trying to hold everything together behind the lager bar, on your right as you enter the hall next to the beer tokens.
LiesaAnna
19-01-2005, 11:21
i'll be there in thought! wish i could get there!
MaggieAllan
19-01-2005, 11:41
Yes Sat afternoon for us so will miss you Linda...but at least we can spread out the support for Steve.
We will be over on Sat afternoon to....See you there Maggie[drinkpepsi][drinkbeer][drinkpepsi][drinkbeer][drinkpepsi][drinkpepsi][drinkpepsi][drinkbeer][drinkpepsi][drinkpepsi][drinkbeer][drinkpepsi]
LiesaAnna
25-01-2005, 14:47
we would like a detailed account of this!
cant get there but would like to hear how it all goes
with you all in spirit!!!![msnwink]
have a good time!!!!:D
http://www.orlando-guide.info/forums/Data/Snapper/2005125111121_104_0468_RJ.JPG
http://www.orlando-guide.info/forums/Data/Snapper/2005125111140_104_0473_RJ.JPG
http://www.orlando-guide.info/forums/Data/Snapper/2005125111159_105_0551_RJ.JPG
The top two are what the hall will look like Wednesday and Thursday while we are setting everything up. The bottom photo is last year's festival in full swing on Friday night.
Nostromo
25-01-2005, 15:16
Looking at those photos Steve, the cause certainly seems worthy :D. It is intersting how the crowd seems mostly male.
Will try to get there Sat aft too - all things being equal!!
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Nostromo
Looking at those photos Steve, the cause certainly seems worthy :D. It is intersting how the crowd seems mostly male.
[/quote]
All the females are hanging out over by my bar Nostromo. Way at the back and to the left of the bottom photo. It's not by accident that I run the lagers rather than help on the real ales!! [msnwink]
Nice one Dawn. Look forward to seeing you there.
To horribly mis-quote Rupert Brooke, it looks like there will be some corner of the Formby Hall, that is for ever Florida.
Nostromo
25-01-2005, 16:32
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by SnapperWay at the back and to the left of the bottom photo. It's not by accident that I run the lagers rather than help on the real ales!! [msnwink]
[/quote]
Yes, I can see that now. I transferred your pic onto my PC (I have deleted it now) and used the magnifier to bring the bar area closer. Obviously, I lost some picture quality, but I could make out what appeared to be some female figures near the left bottom part of the frame. Looks like the entire OV Slimming Club was there! :D:D:D[msnscared][msnscared][msnscared]
I may let paul out for an hr or two seeing as we only live in Hindley Green, he can return to his childhood home of Atherton[beer]
MaggieAllan
25-01-2005, 17:08
Steve
I've searched the photo of everyone and can only see one person i know (Frank Heyes -fellow tabler) definately looking worse for wear!
Roll on Saturday....and all the best Steve for Thursday onwards.
LiesaAnna
25-01-2005, 18:25
<span style="color:green">will be thinking of you! green wiv envy!!
hope you have a great time and raise lots of money!</span id="green">
wish i lived closer!:(
never mind![msnwink]
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Snapper
For anyone living close to the Atherton, Wigan, Bolton, Leigh and Manchester areas I would like to invite you to our beer festival, the Bent and Bongs Beer Bash, January 27 - 29.
I donate quite a bit of time each year to help organise this event as all the proceeds are used to support local charities and good causes. This year our main beneficiary is Wigan and Leigh Hospice who provice specialist support to people with non-curable life-threatening illnesses. We are also supporting Childflight, a children's charity based out of Manchester airport, and will be donating a chunk of the proceeds to the Tsunami Earthquake Appeal. The Three Rivers brewery in Stockport are producing a special beer for us, Black Moon Stout, which is a recreated brew from their daughter brewery in Bali. It seems quite apt and appropriate that we are donating all proceeds from the sale of this beer to the Tsunami Appeal.
We are in our 16th year now and last year we became one of the UK's top-20 beer festivals. To give an idea of scale, over the last few weeks we have ordered somewhere around 3,500 branded glasses and well over 5000 litres of the world's best beer. The event is loads of fun, and where else can you get to try a few good pints and at the same time support good and worthwhile causes.
If you have an evening free why not head over and join us for a beer or two. Full details are on our website: http://www.bentnbongs.com
Special thanks to John for giving me the OK to post this rather blatant piece of advertising.
[/quote]
Steve,
Just caught up with this thread and I don't seem to be able to get on the web site?? Keep getting this error message.......
Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e57'
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]String or binary data would be truncated.
/BentNBongsCommonRoutines.asp, line 552
LiesaAnna
25-01-2005, 23:38
i tried it, i can get it on all the postings on this thread!!!!![msnwink]
Oooooo. That doesn't look too healthy Lucy. I've just had a quick look and hopefully have fixed it. Do let me know if you still have problems, otherwise I've fixed the wrong thing!! [msncry]
You know Maggie, we see quite a few people worse for wear come 11pm.
I found this last night which made me chuckle. If you go to http://www.portchesterbrewery.co.uk/ it's the website of one of the breweries we are getting some beer from. If you then click on 'The Brewery' on the left there are a couple of photos of the brewery itself - it's a garage!!! You can even see the door through to the kitchen at the other end.
What makes it even funnier is that Brian the Beermaster tells me that one of the new breweries we are dealing with this year makes Portchester look pretty big.
Anyone heading over this way do please head over to say hello. I'll be behind the bar with the lagers. It's on your right as you enter the hall, next to where you buy beer tokens. I usually have 5 or 6 people behind that bar so just ask for Steve from the Website and they'll find me.
Catch you there.
Oooooo. That doesn't look too healthy Lucy. I've just had a quick look and hopefully have fixed it. Do let me know if you still have problems, otherwise I've fixed the wrong thing!!
Steve,
You fixed it!! Looks great!![msnsmile2]
After quite a long day today we now have everything set-up. We left at about 11:30 this evening leaving the beer to happily gurgle away to itself overnight before Brian the Beermaster lovingly taps it all tomorrow. My only job left for tomorrow is to locate, procure and fit a deep-fit micrometric keg coupler to get the last of the lagers flowing.
I can highly recommend the Fruli Strawberry beer. It's quite delicious. [msntongue][msntongue] I also think that the Red Erik tastes better than ever before; although I guess this might be because we drank some of it in a pub the other week which was OK, but they don't have the advanced bar technology that we have to make sure it dispenses absolutely as intended. The Phoenix bitter is a lovely pint as well. The only advice I can give you on this one is to get it quick, as there isn't much left ... and we don't open until tomorrow evening. 'Nuff said. [msnwink]
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Snapper
After quite a long day today we now have everything set-up. We left at about 11:30 this evening leaving the beer to happily gurgle away to itself overnight before Brian the Beermaster lovingly taps it all tomorrow. My only job left for tomorrow is to locate, procure and fit a deep-fit micrometric keg coupler to get the last of the lagers flowing.
I can highly recommend the Fruli Strawberry beer. It's quite delicious. [msntongue][msntongue] I also think that the Red Erik tastes better than ever before; although I guess this might be because we drank some of it in a pub the other week which was OK, but they don't have the advanced bar technology that we have to make sure it dispenses absolutely as intended. The Phoenix bitter is a lovely pint as well. The only advice I can give you on this one is to get it quick, as there isn't much left ... and we don't open until tomorrow evening. 'Nuff said. [msnwink]
[/quote]
Hope you have a great time if it was closer to home I would pop in[msnsad]
LiesaAnna
27-01-2005, 11:35
me to!:(
have fun!!:D
MaggieAllan
27-01-2005, 12:14
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:[i]locate, procure and fit a deep-fit micrometric keg coupler to get the last of the lagers flowing.
[msnwink]
[/quote]
Steve
If I can still say this coherently on Sat afternoon I know I can still have another drink...please test me and the others...and send us home if we can't[msntongue]
LOL Maggie [msnsmile2][msnsmile2][msnsmile2]
It sounds like a bit of a tough test. I'm not sure I'd be able to coherently say that myself.
I've located and procured the coupler so far. It's on a van somewhere near Preston and should be with us by about lunchtime. All I have to do then is fit it and we are sorted all. [msnsmile2]
See you Saturday.
Steve,
Make sure that for next year you remind us all in advance and the OV Slimming Club ladies can make a guest appearance.
It would be a great excuse to meet up with everyone. (NOT that we should need and excuse)
Make sure you get some photos, especially a self protrait, about time we saw a pic of you.
Hope you are having a great time and raise a lot of money![msnwink]
Kaz
Hi Kaz,
I'm sure that John and Roger will give me the OK for a similar thread next year. It's all for a good cause and a couple of people from the forums got to meet up there, which was great.
We run an opt-in mail-list on the website. It's at http://www.bentnbongs.com/MyDetails.asp and that will keep you informed. You have my personal guarantee that this isn't used for anything other than the beer festival. We don't sell or share this list with anyone. Never have. Never will.
I've got a couple of photos from Saturday afternoon with a couple of faces from the forums. As soon as I find my wire for the camera I will post a couple. I have a horrible feeling that it is locked in my owners closet back in Florida. In the meantime, here's a one of Peter Reid with 3 of the other ringleaders.
For anyone who came, I hope you had a great time. There are lots of tired bodies and sore heads this morning.
We won't know the final total raised for a while yet. We seemed to be as busy, if not busier, than last year so hopefully once all the bills are paid we will be somewhere in the £20k-£25k range.
http://www.orlando-guide.info/forums/Data/Snapper/2005130133721_BBBB_2005_004.jpg
http://www.orlando-guide.info/forums/Data/Snapper/2005130133737_BBBB_2005_007.jpg
To put a couple of faces to names this is, left to right, Kim (Maggie's friend), Steve (Snapper) and Maggie (MaggieAllan).
There's another one too with Jadehouse on it but it won't download from the flash card at the moment. I'll keep trying ...
http://www.orlando-guide.info/forums/Data/Snapper/20052620121_118_1803_RJ.JPG
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Snapper
http://www.orlando-guide.info/forums/Data/Snapper/2005130133721_BBBB_2005_004.jpg
http://www.orlando-guide.info/forums/Data/Snapper/2005130133737_BBBB_2005_007.jpg
[/quote]
steve whos the chap in the jumper - his face is so familar[?]
I'm not surprised Lal. He's Peter Reid. England international footballer who has since managed Manchester City, Sunderland, Leeds and Coventry. Paul, the chap to his left, is a friend of his and managed to twist his arm into opening the festival for us this year. I think next year he is trying to get Atomic Kitten; or maybe that's wishful thinking!!!! [msnwink]
So sorry that we didn't make it :(- had a last minute family crisis. Will definitely make it next time!
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Snapper
I'm not surprised Lal. He's Peter Reid. England international footballer who has since managed Manchester City, Sunderland, Leeds and Coventry. Paul, the chap to his left, is a friend of his and managed to twist his arm into opening the festival for us this year. I think next year he is trying to get Atomic Kitten; or maybe that's wishful thinking!!!! [msnwink]
[/quote]
Oh well that explains it LOL!!!! I now feel like a complete idiot!![msnsmile2]
LiesaAnna
07-02-2005, 11:23
at last!!!! Lynne and maggie thought they mustve broke the camera!!!... and hello steve!!! at last the famous (on ov) photographer!!!!!...now we know which one it was!!!!!!!Lynne have a lovely holiday!!!! lol
MaggieAllan
07-02-2005, 11:44
You can tell someone else took the photo with me on...just not up to Snapper quality!!!!
Steve, hope you get the one with Lynne sorted. I think the one above was me drinking the strawberry beer...knew about it later![zzz]
Maggie - I'm still struggling with the other photo. I think it's because the flash card is half Canon and half Nikon.
Anyhows; just for you, here is a Deep Fit Micro Matric Keg Coupler.
http://www.orlando-guide.info/forums/Data/Snapper/2005215232726_118_1807_RJ.JPG
Calamity Jane
16-02-2005, 09:14
My eldest son went out with Peters daughter ( Louise ) for six and a half years, we have had some laughs with Peter & Barbara, you couldn't meet a nicer bloke anywhere and he is certainly the most "normal" celebrity I have ever met. He would have thouroughly enjoyed that day out.:D
A great footballer/manager and a nice bloke to boot.:D
MaggieAllan
16-02-2005, 12:22
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Snapper
Maggie - I'm still struggling with the other photo. I think it's because the flash card is half Canon and half Nikon.
Anyhows; just for you, here is a Deep Fit Micro Matric Keg Coupler.
http://www.orlando-guide.info/forums/Data/Snapper/2005215232726_118_1807_RJ.JPG
[/quote]
Steve, thank goodness, I can now sleep at night!!!![msnwink]