The evening started with a dance. Yup, you read that right, a dance!! As Peachfest was held on 4th July, the theme this year was USA, and we had to pick a costume theme, and song and dance to go with it. We went with gangsters and moles, so naturally our song had to be Michael Jackson, Smooth Criminal. I think we were all hoping the bottles of Champagne in the car on the way up would help with the co-ordination, but, it possibly didn’t.

As most of you lovelies will now know, Grolsch is no more, and a pretty big deal at Peachfest this year was the launch of Pravha. As Peach is one of the first pub groups in the UK to launch it as their entry session lager, it was good to hear the positive feedback from all of the team. It’s light and delicious, but with a bit more bite and backbone than Grolsch, so a happy medium between one of our more premium lagers and a more sessionable lower percentage beer. I can also report that I got a little bit giddy drinking way too much of it at Peachfest, and as most of you know I’m a fussy so and so if I like it, then it must be good.

Being the competitive type, my highlight of Peachfest was whopping the GM from one of our sister pubs, The One Elm, Mat, at a little game of ‘collect as much memorabilia from other pubs fancy dress as possible and present it to each other’. The winner of this super important war was the person who managed to procure the megaphone from The Highfield, which was floating around. Mat brought his A-game to start, and launched into a early lead. I was presented with cowboy hats, cheer-leading pompoms, and most disturbingly someone’s underwear. Dare I ask? I followed with an inflatable hammer, a set of bunny ears and a giant snake, before taking the crown once I secured the megaphone, and proceeded to chase him round the field, shouting ‘LOSER! LOSER! LOSER!’ (P.s. I have since learnt, Mathew, that you used your team to collect earlier items… #cheater. Just sayin’)

In terms of gossip, which I’m sure everyone is desperate to hear, I suggest you ask Nat about her podium dancing, Charlie about his multiple deep and meaningful conversations or Dom about his power people photo. It was actually Camilla and Colette’s last hurrah with us, and in true Camilla fashion, she was in bed before 1am, having lost the rest of the team following too many double gins. Colette and I suffered most considerably when some evil chef tricked us with a spoonful of chilli vodka and all the Pravha in the world couldn’t solve that pain! Annabel seemed to be sitting pretty until the final vodka sent her retreating to her tent, and Buckman has had to sit out of rugby since going over on his ankle, six  lagers before arriving will do that to you James.

Peachfest saw us dancing into the early hours, throwing giant inflatable cacti around and just generally proving why we’re kept behind the bar and not allowed on your side. We enjoyed some of the most delicious rum and gin, danced to our very own Ops Director MC Staggy on the decks and almost all ended up with some raging headaches for the next couple of days. Not only was it a great evening, with all our team enjoying a drink together, it is also a great way for our sister pubs and us to get to interact. It’s always a bit rubbish when we can’t open and see all your lovely faces, but I have to admit some nights, like Peachfest 15, make all our hardwork seem worth it! Until next year Peachfest- it was a pleasure!