Discover a world of real cider at the International Craft Cider Festival 2011

The International Craft Cider Festival 2011 is the first of its kind, and is set to become a real highlight of any real cider-lover?s calendar.

There will be craft cider and perry makers from around the world; with the first year focusing mainly on producers from France, Germany, Spain, England and Wales, but with interest too from Ireland and Finland.

The Wales International Craft Cider and Perry Festival is a cultural celebration of locally produced cider, perry, food and music from each participating region. In the first year it is hoped that the festival will feature some or all of the following regions from Europe: England (The South West/Three Counties), Germany (Saarland/Hesse), Austria (Mostviertel/Muehlviertel), Spain (Asturias), France (Brittany/Normandy), Norway (Hardanger Fjord), Switzerland (Toggenburg) and Wales.

The cider and perry producing regions of Europe and the World are not generally known to the potential visitor or tourist and are therefore not on top of most people’s destination list when they are considering a holiday or weekend break. A key aim of the festival is to show the beauty of these regions, discover the similarities between them and positively explore and celebrate the differences. The regions all have a rural friendliness, good high quality but honest food and all are truely and uniquely beautiful. And if you do visit with someone who’s not as fanatical about cider and perry as you, don’t worry, there are plenty of things to their taste too! We can’t wait for you to discover them….

The festival aims to celebrate and promote the artisan craft cider and perry industry; bringing producers together in a global community. It will also celebrate the wider food and music cultures that the cidermaking forms a part of, with a number of internationally inspired bands appearing on the live music stage, and caterers feeding the appetite of the festival-goers. This festival is not only an opportunity to showcase Wales to international visitors, but an opportunity for other countries to promote their areas and cidermaking culture.

For the past 9 years the Welsh Perry and Cider Society have been running a successful Welsh Perry & Cider Festival and championships, just outside Abergavenny. Building on our success there, we want to go bigger and embrace the world craft cider movement.