If you attended the Summer Festival back in July of this year, you may have seen some interesting missing posters around the park directing you to a mysterious secret bar in the woods. But just what was Jack’s Bar, and where was it?

Jack’s Bar was an Irish Bar hidden deep within the depths of our woodland. Created and built by our in house events and catering team, the impressive bar had an intimate and cosy atmosphere with wooden features, seats and festoon lighting. The full bar stocked traditional Irish brands and Irish trad bands kept the crowds dancing throughout the day.

We caught up with the Summer Festival event manager to find out a bit more about how Jack’s Bar came to be. Stephan Hickey said “I’d wanted to create a secret bar at our Summer Festival for the last few years, so it was great to make the dream a reality this year. I’d had my eye on that hidden spot in the park for a while.

“The team did a fantastic job of building the bar from scratch out of wooden structures, lighting rigs and pallets and the end result was really impressive. We decided to call the Irish bar ‘Jack’s Bar’ after everyone’s favourite Irish drunk Jack Hackett from Father Ted, which allowed us to create some intriguing missing posters.

“Why an Irish bar? Well, I’m Irish myself so that’s probably why. Plus everyone loves an Irish bar don’t they?”