GLASSES of beer were raised in their thousands as Box Steam Brewery combined its award-winning beverages with music and food to hosts its annual festival in Holt on Saturday.

More than 2,000 people headed to the village's playing fields for the third edition of Boxfest, a free festival run by the family-owned brewery.

Attendees were treated to a vast selection of food and drink, as well as an inflatable assault course, an 80ft slide, teacup rides, bands, stalls, dodgeball and a hard fought tug-o-war battle between Box Steam staff and Bath Ladies Rugby Team.

Despite taking more than half a year to organise, the brewery's sales and events manager, Libby Elswood, said all the effort more than paid off in the end.

"It truly was a spectacular day for the community to enjoy, free of charge. The whole place was buzzing. This is a way of the brewery thanking the village for its support and for more than double the amount of people to turn up this year is fantastic," she said.

"Mother Nature played her part in making the locals turn out in such great numbers, there was a huge mix of ages and there was a lot of fun things to get involved with.

"One of my favourite bits was the hotly contested tug-of-war between our lads at the brewery and the Bath Ladies rugby team. The second one was particularly close but the boys came through in the end.

"When you have something like this, where locals come together, have a drink and a laugh in the sun and we get to raise our profile too, it is a winning formula. This is not a money making exercise for us, this is about thanking everyone for hosting us enjoying a great event.

"This has taken more than six months to put together but boy is it worth it. It has been a busy time of year for us, what with being part of the Bath and West Show to the International Air Tattoo, then we have Melksham Party in the Park but this is our biggest event and it was brilliant.

"We want to build on this success and come back next year with more activities, more fun and double the amount of people if possible. Hopefully Mother Nature can help us again too."