Swashbuckling fun promised at Cider Festival

Anyone going to the south coast of Devon this May would be advised to be prepared for some swashbuckling as pirates will be everwhere; from Brixham to Plymouth, stopping off for a knees-up at Exmouth Rugby Club.

Scrumpstock, a cider festival which celebrates keeping Devon’s apple varieties and traditional pressing methods alive, will join in the notorious seafarers’ fun with its own Pirate Day on the final of three days of music, family entertainments, activities and opportunities to discover an ever-expanding selection of ciders.

Young pirates, who may not have waged enough sea battles to require peg legs or eye patches, can enhance their fearsome appearances with a visit to Devon Face Painting, who also create looks for mermaids, tigers and butterflies amongst others.

According to her website, Becky Wooldridge of Devon Face Painting, based in Bideford North Devon, also paints pregnant women’s bumps, a new-found craze, which is reported to be relaxing for both mother and unborn child.  Her company also does glitter tattoos.

Often found working with Devon Face Painting is Captain Coconut from Ilfracombe, North Devon. Captain Coconut entertains with bubbles of all shapes and sizes, even square ones, and runs bubble workshops, both of which he will be doing at Scrumpstock during the daytime.

Rattlebox Theatre, who create and operate a range of puppet characters for family entertainment, will perform “Pasty Pirate Puppet Show” on Pirate Day, 17th May. Dave Oliver of Rattlebox warns this show will be: “equally unsuitable for children and adults; ‘tis a cheeky tale of daring heroes and dastardly villains, dodgy second-hand boat dealers, mermaids and sea monsters”.

Village fete style games-stalls will operate during the daytime and Exmouth RNLI have created their own variations on popular themes involving wellies, such as guess the weight of the welly, hoopla with wellies and throw a tennis ball into a welly. Exmouth RNLI had a visit from the Duke of Kent on 19 March to inspect their new Shannon boat.

Alongside entertainments during the day, there will be a range of food stalls selling locally sourced and hand made produce such as Westaways, Chunk of Devon and Carnivorous Rex. For vegetarians there will be sweet and savoury crepes by Lemon Jelli who also have Origin coffee, teas, shakes, smoothies and unique soft drinks.

Scrumpstock runs from 6pm to11pm on Friday 15th May, 11am to 11pm on Saturday 16th and 11am to 6pm on Sunday, Pirate Day, 17th May.  Day and weekend tickets can be bought on the website: www.scrumpstock.co.uk