A VILLAGE pub will celebrate its 21st annual beer festival with live music and a variety of British culinary favourites.

Peter Hynes, landlord of The Crown, at Manfield, near Darlington, has named his beer festival The Best of British and hopes to encourage food lovers as well as ale drinkers to attend.

The free weekend-long event starts tomorrow (Friday) at 5pm with an open mic night led by Tony and Geoff and a traditional pie and pea supper provided by Carley’s Kitchen, who operates a mobile kitchen.

On Saturday (May 4) the pub will open at noon with a craft fair and music by Smoking Spitfires. During the day the pub will offer hot beef and pork sandwiches, followed by a fish and chip van in the evening.

Sunday’s entertainment will come from a seven-piece a-cappella group, Vintage Belles, followed by an acoustic duo Ben and Eric.

Throughout the weekend there will be 16 real ales and six traditional ciders on offer.

Mr Hynes said: “We’ve been doing this for a long time now and 21 years is a real landmark. We hope people will come and join us through the weekend to enjoy what we’ve got on offer.”