My visit with two good pals was not only my first Stockport Beer Festival experience, but also the…read morefirst time in a football ground for probably 15 years - it made for a really good venue. There was no need to buy tickets in advance, you could rock up there on the day. One thing we found very annoying was that after £5 for entry and £2 for a glass you had to pay again for a programme (which we refused to). Come on CAMRA, this should have been included. The many, many alphabetised cask beers and ciders were lined up down either side of the entry corridor. If you're a cider fan than this festival is definitely for you, I've never seen so many. As you could expect this area of the venue was extremely busy, bordering on claustrophobic, so once you've been served head to the far end which leads you down to the outside terraces. They open The Cheadle End stand so you can sit and look out over the hallowed ground of Edgeley Park whilst supping your amber nectar. If you'd prefer a proper sit down, head through to Bar Nouveau which features a range of brand new beers that are making their debut at the festival. The large banqueting suite has lots of table seating, a small stage and a dance floor (which towards the end of the night starts to resemble an office Christmas party...). Overall a thoroughly enjoyable event, not only due to the sheer range on offer but also the friendly volunteers and great atmosphere. Definitely one for your calendar.

This is a two day festival in the beautiful location of tittlesworth water. with live music and…read morecrafts this festival is perfect for young children. When the sun sets in a haze over the water it really is somthing else! Its a shame the was no bar but i expect it was becuase it was so close to the water and they couldnt or decided not to get a licence, this maybe added with the family/relaxed atmosphere. This for some made it unique. Alcohol was still alouded on site and music hit on till late. music included hippy scar and a lively big haired punk set. a very little acoustic tent hit out niche tunes behind the hill in the day. A plesant day

Edgeley Park is a very Edgy Park in that all of the boys and all of the girls in this park tend to…read morewatch football in the nude. At least in my dreams they do. First-Hand Experience: More info about my personal experience at this stadium - I used to live just down the road from here in Chorlton Cum Hardy and my friend Derek used to live right by this ground. When I was a kid, I saw one game here, and then as an adult, one more in 2007. It's a fantastic, huge, intense, passionate crowd and ground, and I look forward to seeing another one. I hope they get back into the league very soon. I've been to most UK & US stadiums, due to lifelong obsessions with travel, sport & especially footy (soccer to Americans). Born & raised in England, I followed Oxford United (hometown team) to stadia all over the country at away games, and later Liverpool (fave team) around. Every stadium review - like all my reviews - are from first-hand personal experience, usually from several visits. In 2011, I was on music tour in the UK, and visited most stadiums for fun in my spare time. As recently as Fall 2014, when I was "stuck" in UK for 3 months, I went to hundreds yet again while travelling. I have pictures of me at most, which I'll post later. Also, when back in UK I'll take more pix, and add more stadia! *** return to regular review *** Easily the best and biggest stadium outside the Conference Premier and Football League, and hopefully it won't be for long. The once-mighty Stockport County play here, and were in League One for awhile. See my review on this team for more info. This stadium holds over 10k people and as lifelong fan Jonny says, has excellent pies. Unless they've ran out of them, in which case you'd have to ask, who ate all the pies? Probably the Geordies. Or Mike Ashley. Or both. This is a real stadium and a real English football experience, unlike the commercial corporate overpriced Manchester giants, so give it a go and see what you think of "the way it used to be." Yer avin a larf.

I have to give the hallowed turf and spiritual home of Stockport County a five star rating…read more I've been coming to Edgeley Park since I was a wee nipper and the only thing that's changed is a slightly more crumbled stadium, a scoreboard that makes its own mind up of when it's going to work and a slow and painful drop for the team through 5 divisions in 10 years. But - this is real football! If you can't afford to attend Utd or City each week and want to enjoy the pints in the pub beforehand, the banter on the terrace and the fact that you can meet and chat to the players before and after the game, then Edgeley Park is the place to be each Saturday. County are now in the Conference North, playing teams that get around 10-20% of the 4000 a week attendance we get, so the 2013-2014 season could be a good place to start for anyone up for a bit of glory hunting At £15 to get in and a little over £3 a pint (with local brewery Robinsons well stocked - just make sure you sit in the Cheadle End) it's a cost effective place to enjoy a few hours each week. The pies aren't half bad as well, as everyone who I meet for the first time tells me once I say I'm a County fan - just ask the Geordies I know who attend about 4 times a year and can't wait for their lunch time treat at half time!

Advertised (on their website) as Europe's biggest tribute and new acts festival, this is the best…read morefestival I have ever been too. Don't be put off by the tribute side of it, I know you can get some pretty bad tributes but at Glastonbudget they make an effort to get the best. I have to admit that I enjoyed watching the Dead hot chillis more than I enjoyed the real act (at Earls court) - they have so much energy, and you actually have a chance to get to the front of the audience. The new acts are also great, they get some great new acts and it is fab to have a chance to see so many! Value for money is fantastic - ticket prices at the moment are just less than £50 for the whole weekend including camping. Another thing the festival prides itself on is keeping food and drink prices reasonable, so prices are similar to those in a pub. They serve a selection of real ales and ciders which were very popular with the lads in our group. The only complaint I have is about the weather - it rained badly on the Sunday 2 years ago!! They did improve things a lot last year by adding two music tents, one in the camp field and one in the main arena, the rain wasn't too bad but at least they were prepared if it had been. This event is getting bigger year after year, I would highly recommend it (and have been to all my friends!!)

Amazing music, Alcohol, Tents, Adrenalin pumping Rides, 60,000 people from all over the country,…read morewomen in tiny shorts and floral prints, shirtless men and gorgeous sunshine --- These ingredients definitely make up for a FANTASTIC festival! What more could one possibly ask for? This was my first ever festival in this country and I must say Parklife you were incredible! I have always been more of a rock & roll girl but after this I have started to love hip hop and EDM! Incredible dj's playing all over and some of the best bands ever! Jurassic 5 reminded me of my teenage days and I danced like a mentalist like everyone else there; Rudimental was absolutely insane as well and the crowd was singing aloud every song (woof what a feeling to be in that crowd); Disclosure was equally crazy getting the crowd all excited even though the heat was scorching! Besides the big names there were so many independent artists from all over the country who blew my mind, there was this one reggae band who covered some really popular rock numbers in reggae style -- Ama-zing! I am gutted that I cant recall their name, blame the heat and alcohol for that! The downsides like every festival included no signal, 3G and long queues --- but hey! that is expected. Verdict : I had a fabulous time and I can't wait to go back next year again!

I only found out about this because of Facebook,and i'm glad that I did!…read more Apart from the fact that Holmfirth is a really lovely little place,the event itself was really bloody good! Set over 5 zones dotted around the centre the Festival really was a food and drink lovers dream.All of the stall holders were friendly and passionate about their wares and they were all quick off the mark where samples were concerned. We bought a gorgeous chicken dumpling from the Jamaican stall,a beautiful buffalo burger,a stunnungly good veg indian platter and a couple of wicked seek kebabs (All of those eaten at the Festival) To take home we bought,4 pies,some soup,some bread,some cheese,a mars bar crunch and 3 litres of small batch cider. A good Festival and day? You bet it was!!

As soon as the sun starts popping out again after the winter, it's time to think about what music…read morefestivals you'll be going to this year. If you'd like to keep things fairly local, then I can recommend Whatfest as a newly emerging music festival in Cheshire. For such a new festival they bagged a surprisingly high profile line-up last year with the likes of The Bluetones and Dodgy performing. Unfortunately, it was hit pretty hard by the weather, with torrential rain turning the site into a quagmire and affecting walk up attendances on the second day of the festival especially. Those that did make it through the mud were treated to two great stages of music, DJs, food and fairground rides on a glorious site. However, this shouldn't detract from how well this festival was run, the strength of the line up and quality of the sound on the main stage. A new festival that is only going to get better and better in future years. Go check it out in 2010.

The second Sunday of every month is one of my favourite days of each particular month. That's one…read moreSunday when I'm happy to set my alarm, get my caboose out of bed and fly on further south in Manchester to Stockport's historic Victorian Market Halls, because that's where I can find epic 70s flowery maxi dresses, Smash Hits 'Best of the 80s' annuals and trinkets galore. Welcome to the Vintage Village! I've been to a lot of vintage markets and shops in my time. Once, I even travelled all the way up to Edinburgh for a coat, I brought back over £40 worth of vinyl and a 56 year old fur from Glasgow and I've been known to scour our little Manchester boutiques for hours at a time. But what Stockport offered last month just blew me away, knocked me sideways and had me gazing around open-mouthed like I did when I was taken to Disney World at six years old. This was epic. The quality was remarkable, the prices were insanely affordable and the sheer variety on offer was stunning. I defy you not to walk from stall to stall and see at least three things per section you covet. If you were to slap something not only like this, but of this calibre (exceptional quality, eclectic variety) bang in the middle of Manchester City Centre it would be completely overrun with fifteen-year-old Noel Fielding stalkers in knee socks and oversized Urban Outfitters jumpers (not that there's anything wrong with them - I've been known to rock a woolly from UO regularly and have frequent NSFW dreams about Mr Vince Noir myself), but as it's tucked away in a sleepy town centre in the South Manc 'burbs, it attracts a much calmer, quieter, more discerning clientele. Families bring along their children and have soup and bacon butties at Zip's Grill. Couples with dogs mooch around for gifts. It's incredibly relaxed and wonderfully friendly. I lost count of the amount of conversations I struck up with stall purveyors. This is worth getting out of bed on the day of rest for. Seriously, do it! You won't regret it. And if you do, come and have a go at me. I'll probably whup you upside the head. (P.S. Zip's Grill serves some of the finest coffee I've ever had the good fortune to taste, and the food looks all kinds of fabulous. I'll definitely have a soup this Sunday.)

Vintage Village is on every second Sunday of the month in Stockport's totally brilliant market hall…read moreplace. If the truth be known, It was more my wife and sister in law who were the instigators in us going but I wanted to stretch my legs and go out for the afternoon so thought I would give it a shot! Gotta say, it was really really good and there were all sorts of stalls selling vintage clothes, records, antiques, furniture - pretty much anything from yesteryear. Nice touches were a skiffle band playing live, with a DJ playing hits from the likes of Elvis throughout and a load of vintage cars and motorbikes on display outside. Great street food was provided from the (both) excellent Lord of the Pies and Honest Crust Pizza. I'll definitely be heading there again in the coming months as it's a great day out and only a £1 entry - bargain!

Organised by the Trafford and Hulme branch of CAMRA in the surrounds of St Clement's Church in…read moreChorlton, this proved to be an exceptionally popular and well-organised festival. Though a sizeable queue had formed before the gates opened at 6pm, their fast-track ticket booth (where for £10 you received your hand stamp, glass, programme and £4 worth of beer tokens) meant you could hit the first bar within moments of entry. Additional tokens were available in £5 & £10 denominations from the beer token tent. There were four bars within the venue: the World Beers Bar and Out of Town Bar (both inside the church building), the Manchester Brewers' Bar and Traditional Cider & Perry bar within the grounds. Lots of seating under the cover of marquees (some could have done with a jet-washing it has to be said), but they proved very useful when the few hours of dry mildish summer weather was interrupted by rain. Food offerings were provided by some top street food traders. On the Friday session there were All About Pies, Fire & Salt BBQ and Tampopo. These were payment by cash only. Entertainment came in the form of Twisted Tubes, an excellent local band performing pop and jazz covers with their saxaphone, trumpets, trombone, sousaphone and percussion instruments. There were some minor annoyances - the queues for food were long at times given there were only three stalls for 100s of people; none of the volunteers seemed to be on rubbish duty so food trays were blowing everywhere or being left piled on tables; and there were no refunds on beer glasses (if you didn't want to keep them). Overall it was a really enjoyable night, more so for the fact we bagged a table early on. The beer selection was extensive and it was great to have a bar dedicated to local breweries. Tip: any unused value on your tokens at the end of the night can be returned to the token tent for a refund or you can hand it in as a donation to the church.