The Hogs Back Brewery Hop Harvest celebrations bounced back bigger and better after an enforced absence last year due to the pandemic.
For the first time, festivities at the brewery, in Tongham, spilled over two days to meet public demand. There was a festival-style music-led party on the Saturday, and a more family-friendly event on the Sunday. Around 2,500 people attended over the weekend.
In another first, the party took place half-way through the harvest rather than at the end, as this year’s hop crop has been the largest since Hogs Back planted its first hop garden in 2014. This meant that, despite hard work by the Hogs Back team, including their 20 volunteers, to bring in the hops, harvest had to stop for the party, and then restart on the Monday morning.
Rupert Thompson, managing director of Hogs Back Brewery, said: “Pausing harvest to hold our party was a nice problem to have as it’s the result of our bumper hop crop this year. After the last 18 months of on-off socialising, everybody was ready for a party, whether that meant dancing the night away with a beer or two, or enjoying the great children’s entertainment.
“Our hop harvest parties have always involved the local community, and we were delighted with their support again this year. Hop farming is an important part of Farnham’s history and we’re happy to have brought it back and to celebrate with local residents.”
Guests enjoyed the full range of Hogs Back beers, including Green TEA, the brewer’s flagship TEA brewed with fresh ‘green’ Fuggles hops — a harvest tradition. The music line-up included a number of local bands.
Familes enjoyed a busy programme of activities, including dray rides around the hop garden with Sovereign and Bowler, two Suffolk Punch horses who had helped out with harvesting earlier in the month. Children and adults took part in a hat decorating competition, using freshly cut hops to create eye-catching headwear.
Several local groups helped to manage the event, with volunteers from 4th Farnham (Tongham) Scout Group Scouts manning the car park and Kids Zone, and local charity Hedgehogs, providing marquees. Supporting local charities has always been part of the hop harvest and of Hogs Back’s ethos generally. The parties raised £600 for Wooden Spoon, the children’s charity of rugby, based in Fleet, in memory of Hogs Back team member, Nick Burne, who had been a supporter.
Rupert added: “This was our sixth hop harvest party and our best ever, in part because we hadn’t celebrated for two years, so it was a real delight to meet with friends again. We were blessed with good weather and our guests had a fantastic time drinking beer, listening to some wonderful music or taking part in our activities.
“A big thank you to all the local businesses and volunteers who put in a huge amount of time and effort to make this year’s hop harvest celebrations such wonderful events.”
