Pub springing back to life with its own festival

TWO-DAY EVENT EVEN HAS ITS OWN CAMPING SITE

- By LYNETTE PINCHESS [e-mail] @LynettePinchess

A PUB is planning its own two-day festival - and you can even camp there overnight.

It's a massive turnaround for the Shepherd's Rest, which earlier this year was boarded up.

Four months after standing empty, the pub in Lower Bagthorpe reopened in April with mum-of-three Sarah Baker and her husband, Dean, a shop fitting site manager, at the helm. The family-run business is now back on its feet.

Before reopening, the exterior and inside were updated with help from the brewery, keeping a cosy countryside feel by changing the colours to match the existing furnishings. Food is now served a few hitches with the kitchen were ironed out.

Visitors can look forward to a menu of burgers, steak, Ploughman's, Chippy Friday and Sunday roasts. Entertainment to draw people into the 17th-century pub includes karaoke, a quiz night and the garden has a permanent bouncy castle.