24/09/2026
Booze House Tales returned to The Packet Inn, the pub that opens for just three days a year at Norfolk festival Field Maneuvers.
This year the beloved local had a mega glow-up by the busy hands at Uhaul D**e Rescue, with a massive new Function Room taking care of the late-night partying, leaving the Packet Inn to focus on proper pub business.
And that’s exactly why it works. Field Maneuvers is three gloriously silly, unpretentious days of dancing hard, letting loose and mucking in with the friendliest crowd around. The Packet Inn is its anchor: somewhere to peel off from the dancefloor, sink into a sofa, catch up with mates and recharge before going again.
Inspired by working men’s clubs and old-school boozers, it was stuffed with dark wood tables, picnic benches, armchairs, sofas and boingy red velvet banquettes.
Peggy Mitchell’s familiar cardboard cutout and Billy the Bass returned alongside a dartboard, fruit machines and enough trinkets to cover almost every inch of wall. Glaswegian pub-obsessed artist Trackie McLeod was also let loose on the place, creating new artwork including a lighting installation inspired by that holiest of drinking rituals: ripping open a bag of crisps and sticking it in the middle of the table.
The huge, well-staffed bar meant minimal queuing and maximum drinking. Grolsch, Meantime Anytime IPA, Cornish Orchards c***r and Asahi kept punters well watered.
Friday’s torrential downpour packed the place for Uhaul D**e Rescue’s raucous arm-wrestling, while Sunday’s DJ Trev pub quiz was equally rammed.
A proper boozer, with a rave out back, at the heart of one of the most magical little festivals around. Perfect.
2027 TICKETS GO ON SALE 25th Sept @ 11am
