Coronavirus forces GlastonFerry to cancel for first time in 12-year history

In May 2005, current landlords of The Ferry Tavern, Jade and Andy Mulholland took over the pub, located on the banks of the River Mersey, from Jade’s parents.

Jade had just completed her building surveyor’s degree and Andy left his career with Greater Manchester Police to take over the much-loved community pub.

In early 2006, a regular customer Ken Stoll approached the pair to ask them to host a Harley Davidson Rally featuring live music in the summer.

Landlord and event manager Andy said: “Looking back now, we were lucky to have delivered such a successful event as our lack of experience was obvious.

"It was a free event so we didn’t even know how many people would attend but we had more than 1000 people.

"A friend helped us to build a stage from scaffolding, we borrowed a PA system and had it on an extension lead out of bedroom window, we only hired one extra toilet and did the catering ourselves.

"We were out of our depth, but it all went really well and we really enjoyed it.”

Following the success of the event, the couple came up with the idea of GlastonFerry.

It has now seen them host 25 GlastonFerry events at the Penketh pub featuring more than 100 of the UK best tribute bands.

The first official GlastonFerry took place in July 2008 with a lineup featuring both cover and original bands including, Warrington musician, Andy Bennett and iconic Liverpool band, The Amazing Kappa.

The event drew a crowd of 1500 people.

From there, the event grew and evolved with two, one-day long festivals taking place each year.

In September 2009 the lineup featured its first tribute headlining band, The Clone Roses.

The reaction from the crowd was so overwhelming and positive, Andy and Jade continued to host tribute bands such as the Antartic Monkeys, The Fillers, Kings Of Lyon, Stereosonics and Guns 2 Roses.

Award-winning

Andy added: “The development of the festival has been a real learning curve for us but all the hard work is worth it. It truly is born out of a love of live music, bringing friends and family together for a good time and a quality ale.”

The event can now host 2000 people and is so popular tickets sell out on the first day.

Jade said: “I’m glad to say that we have learnt a lot and our event management and delivery skills have been developed.

"The events now take a team of more than 20 and take 12 months to plan.

"We employ more than 30 security staff to work each event which has evolved to include outside bars, professional caterers and now even has two stages.

"We probably wouldn’t be able to deliver such successful events if we didn’t love it so much.”

In Christmas 2016, lead singer of The Clone Roses, Gav Scott approached the pair to ask if they would help organise a landmark event to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of the tribute band.

Not ones to turn down a challenge, they teamed up to create the award winning Clonefest; a sell-out, day-long music festival at Sherdley Park in St Helens to a crowd of 4,500 revellers.

The hugely successful event went on to win the Arts Award for Pride of St Helens.

In June 2019, they then went on to deliver GlastonFerry In the Park in Bank Park to a crowd of 5,000 people and a second CloneFest in Sherdley Park in July 2019.

Together they had grand event plans for 2020, with their biggest event to date; they sold almost 15,000 tickets for a big gig at Spike Island in Widnes.

The Resurrection, due to take place in May was set to celebrate the 30-year anniversary of the iconic Stone Roses gig that had previously taken place there.

Sadly, due to coronavirus and the restrictions, this has now been postponed and is planned to take place on Saturday, July 24 2021.

This postponement has also extended to their next GlastonFerry event, due to be taking place this weekend.

The couple, who have welcomed a new baby boy Jack in the last few weeks are positive about the future.

Andy said: “We were really disappointed to have to postpone events this year, especially to not be able to run GlastonFerry for the first year ever since we have launched.

"But we’ve got grand plans for 2021 and planning is already underway.

"In the meantime, with the pub closed I’m enjoying extended paternity leave with Jade, Charlie and my new son.”

After 15 years at the pub for Jade and Andy, they say The Ferry Tavern will always continue to host and be the home of the original GlastonFerry.

For further information on the upcoming events, visit www.theferrytavern.com.