As Gloucester looks forward to another event-filled summer celebrating the city’s vibrant culture and musical scene, Marketing Gloucester invites event organisers to be included in this year’s SoMAC brochure.

Gloucester’s Summer of Music, Arts and Culture is the annual festival running throughout July and August, bringing together established events including the Gloucester Carnival, the Gloucester Rhythm & Blues Festival and Gloucester Goes Retro alongside newer events such as WSP Solicitors Art In The City and the Gloucester Classical Music Festival.

Marketing Gloucester will also promote other summer cultural events in Gloucester free of charge. Last year the Museum of Gloucester, Gloucester Cathedral, St Mary de Crypt Church, Gloucester Guildhall, King’s Theatre, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, the Gloucester 10K, and Gloucester Quays benefitted from the additional exposure as the brochure, banners, PR and social media reached an audience of more than 1.5 million over the summermonths.

If you are an event organiser and you think your event or festival would fit in with Gloucester’s Summer of Music, Arts and Culture and would benefit from being a part of the overall brand, contact Marketing Gloucester on info@marketinggloucester.co.uk with your event details byWednesday 9 May 2018.

The 6th Gloucester CAMRA Beer & Cider Festival is taking place on 27-28 April and will once again be hosted in the historic Blackfriars Priory, off Southgate Street in Gloucester. We will have around 100 ales and 30 ciders, plus a selection of wine and prosecco. The magnificent Blackfriars building proves a perfect backdrop for the festival with a variety of rooms, including quiet rooms and the priory’s beautiful South Range, plus the (hopefully!) sunny courtyard. The cavernous main hall is ideal for keeping the beers and ciders at the perfect temperature.

Our 100 beers once again come from across the country – from as far Alexandria in Scotland to the north and Penzance in Cornwall to the South. We also have a wide range of local beers from around Gloucester, with the closest coming from Gloucester Brewery and the Brewhouse and Kitchen, just yards from the venue in Gloucester Docks, and the newest being from Clavell & Hind, recently opened at Birdlip.

For the enthusiasts we have a wide range of styles from bitter and IPAs to blonde, golden, pale and red ales. We’ve even got a green one. We’ve got porters, stouts and, for CAMRA’s ‘Mild Month’, a good selection of milds. We’ve got wheat beer, lager and, for the truly adventurous, a rhubarb and hibiscus Grisette. We’ve also sourced beers from microbreweries around the country that you’re unlikely to find in your local.

The festival is not just for beer lovers, we also have an equally interesting mix of ciders and perries. Many come from traditional cider areas around Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Somerset, but we also have some from Wales and Nottinghamshire. As well as the traditional sweet medium and dry, we have ciders made with sloeberries, oranges, blackcurrant, lemon & lime, strawberry, garlic & chilli, elderflower and rhubarb.

There is also wine and prosecco available and, as if all of that isn’t enough, we will once again have our popular selection of Gloucestershire cheeses, including varieties from  Charles Martel, Smarts, Crumps and Woefuldane. There will also be hot food available throughout the festival.

The festival isn’t just for die-hard beer and cider lovers. Being in the centre of town it attracts a wide range of customers of all ages and interests to come and have a fun, relaxing time. Of course Gloucester Rugby are playing at home to Bath on the Saturday, so we anticipate a fair few cherry and white shirts about the festival before and after the match as well, with the away supporters being equally welcome. We have beers from both Gloucester and Bath, so the friendly rivalry can continue!

There is entertainment on throughout the festival with a mix of bands and solo artists from around the county, including the ever-popular Tewkesbury Town Band on Saturday afternoon and some popular sing-along covers bands to bring the festival to a close each day. Each year we support a charity at the festival and our chosen charity this year is the James Hopkins Trust.

Entry price is just £6 – the same as last year – with tickets available on the door only. CAMRA members get a free pint with members card. People can join at the festival if they wish.

For more information visit www.gloucesterbeerfestival.org.uk.

Following the launch of his new Review It With Drewitt guide, Christian Drewitt is building up a comprehensive account of venues, not only in the City of Gloucester, but also the surrounding areas. One Forest of Dean business in particular has seen the value of working closely with Review It With Drewitt. Phill Hucks from the Orchard Trust Day Centre in Lydbrook was pleasantly surprised to realise that seeing his day centre through Christian’s eyes, there was so much more could be done to improve the accessibility of the site.

Phill Hucks, Project Manager at The Orchard Trust, said: “Christian knows far better than I ever will how easy or difficult it is to use our services and that is why we wanted him to give us feedback which we could use to improve our accessibility. If I were a potential customer I would be happier trusting the advice of someone who experiences this all the time and so the review on his website will be a powerful marketing tool to enable us to reach exactly the clients we are seeking to provide a service for.”

Christian with Dame Janet Trotter

With Marketing Gloucester CEO Jason Smith, Molly, and Gloucester Mayor S Morgan

Christian Drewitt said: “I visited The Orchard Trust in Lydbrook in January and was pleased to find such a great venue with a variety of activities for anyone with a disability to enjoy for a day out. The centre is on a hillside, a little tricky to find but with good directions well worth a visit with so much to do. My main concerns were some tight corners for wheelchairs, only manual doors throughout and a few changes needing to be made in the toilets to enable independence as much as possible. My suggestions were received very positively by Project Manager Phill Hucks and we look forward to reviewing the centre again in the future to keep the website up to date.”

The Review It With Drewitt website which details accessibility of businesses for wheelchairs and the many varied disabilities of which 20% of the UK population are affected. Information ranging from door specifications such as width, automatic opener or manual, ramps, steps or level entrances, menus with large print or whether staff are happy to take time to explain a menu to someone who is visually impaired, music volume and general restaurant background noise, information regarding toilet facilities and many other details to ensure guests are making an informed decision when choosing a venue.

Christian has visited recreational venues, including restaurants, sports centres and Kingsholm Stadium, the home of Gloucester Rugby, pubs, museums, farm parks, cinemas, parks, public spaces and retail developments. Each venue will be assessed and advised on improvements if necessary and then revisited to review any changes. Each venue on the website will have a basic 1 to 5 star rating free of charge and, if subscribing with a small annual fee, businesses can provide more detailed information and photographs. Christian hopes this will make it an easier experience when planning a day out.

Find out more by visiting the www.reviewitwithdrewitt.co.uk

ENDS.

Notes for Editors

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For further information, images or to request interviews contact christian@reviewitwithdrewitt.co.uk

About Review It With Drewitt

Our mission is to enable access to public places for ALL people with any form of disability. Our experience has disabled members of society has shown that many simple everyday tasks relating to travel and getting out and about are so much easier for the able-bodied than those with disabilities. We want to change this and make it the same for everyone.

Go behind the scenes this Residents’ Weekend with free hard hat tours of Gloucester’s most exciting restoration projects

Members of the public are in for a treat this Residents’ Weekend (Friday 6 to Sunday 8 April) with exclusive free hard hat tours of some of Gloucester’s multi-million pound restorations. Llanthony Secunda Priory with £3.2 million of Heritage Lottery funding and St. Mary de Crypt also receiving £2 million towards their restoration. Residents’ Weekend also gives people who live, work or study in Gloucester the opportunity to try something new with big savings at shops, restaurants, attractions and leisure facilities.

Llanthony Secunda Priory is a former Augustinian priory founded in 1136 and is currently undertaking extensive conservation work. Witness the amazing progress that has been made over the last few years in restoring some of the building’s key features such as the Medieval Range’s newly repaired timber frame. This will be the last public tour before the priory reopens later this summer and a rare chance to witness the work involved in restoring a heritage site. The tour takes place on Friday 6^th April at 11am.

Another site undergoing an exciting restoration is St. Mary de Crypt Church and the Old Crypt Schoolroom in Southgate Street. St Mary de Crypt is a fine late 15^th Century church situated in the centre of Gloucester. Adjacent to this is one of the few remaining Tudor schoolrooms in the country. There are two medieval wall paintings in the chancel, one of which depicts the Adoration of the Magi. The tours take place on Saturday 7^th April at 10am and 11am and are free for Residents’ Weekend making it the perfect time to explore of city’s architectural and historical gems.

Credit Gloucestershire Live https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/gloucester-news/construction-vehicles-outside-one-gloucesters-1087601

Gloucester Civic Trust is also running many free tours all over the city on Saturday 7^th April. Some of the tours and talks on offer are; Roman Times Tour, The Faces of Gloucester Talk, Beatrix Potter Tour, Children’s Tour and many more. A particularly exciting one for this year’s Residents’ Weekend is the Saxon Tour which would include a look at the influence of Aetheflaed in Gloucester’s history. This year is the 1100^th anniversary of the death of Aethelfaed and the city will be marking the occasion with a number of activities and events between the 7^th and 10^th June (more details at www.aethelflaed2018.co.uk). The tours are a fantastic opportunity to learn more about the Saxon queen ahead of the celebrations this summer.

Ben Hau, Head of Marketing at Marketing Gloucester, said: “This is a great chance to feel like a tourist in your own city and enjoy a sneak peak at some of Gloucester’s many historical buildings – all free of charge. The annual Residents’ Weekend has been running for six years now and is a wonderful showcase for the attractions and businesses on our doorstep.”

Booking is essential:

Llanthony Secunda Priory tour – contact Tourist Information Centre on 01452 396572

St Mary de Crypt tour – contact mail@discoverdecrypt.org.uk or call 01452 385070

Gloucester Civic Trust tour – contact Tourist Information Centre on 01452 396572

See all the offers for Residents’ Weekend at https://t.co/mblCv7N0wD