Blue Boars Beer Festival in Maldon Hailed as a Huge Success

Hundreds of Happy Customers Enjoy Live Music and Ales

All smiles - the team at the Blue Boar hosted hundreds of happy customers over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

Hundreds of punters enjoyed live music and a vast range of ales at the Blue Boar Hotel’s “incredibly successful” August Bank Holiday beer festival. Taking place throughout the weekend, each day offered a variety of talented singers and musicians from in and around Essex. From Friday 22 to Monday 25 August, the Blue Boar saw guests pack into the historic pub’s illuminated beer garden.

A spokesperson for the Blue Boar Hotel said:

This has been another incredibly successful event. We’re hugely grateful to be so well supported by the community - and those visiting our beautiful pub, potentially for the first time. We were very pleased to serve locally brewed beers and ales, alongside creative new flavours and plenty of old favourites.

The musical line-up included Maldon singer Joanna Power and blues band The Mighty Bosscats, along with performers from across Essex.

The whole event was brought together by brilliant live music from a variety of acts, celebrating the rich talent within our community.

The hotel and pub in Silver Street, Maldon, hosted 16 real ales. This included Amarillo premium golden ale and the multi award-winning Brewers Gold beer from Crouch Vale in South Woodham Ferrers. Bishop Nick from Braintree also flew the flag for Essex, with its 1555 amber ale.

Guitarist Paul Etherton soundtracked Saturday afternoon, before saxophonist Christian Beck took the stage in the evening. Four-piece Duke St started Sunday’s live music line-up at 2pm. They were followed by the Maldon-based Mighty Bosscats, whose latest album is topping blues charts alongside legends Buddy Guy and John Fogerty. On Bank Holiday Monday, Essex covers band SX5 performed hits from the sixties, seventies and eighties.

Believed to be one of the oldest pubs in Maldon, the Blue Boar dates back to the second half of the 14th Century. It was built by an English aristocratic family by the name of the De Veres who were headed by the Earl of Oxford for centuries. The De Veres crest in corporated the device of a blue boar invoking the family name - ‘verres’ is the Latin word for ‘boar.’ By the turn of the century, the Blue Boar was kept by Sarah Elizabeth Hickford and was one of two principal coaching inns in the town.

Following a second successful year, it is hoped the Blue Boar’s beer festival will return for summer 2026.