Around 40 real ales will be on sale at one of South Derbyshire’s most successful beer and music festivals.

The 7th Annual Unicorn Summer Beer Festival is expected to attract hundreds of people to Newton Solney from July 26-29.

And the event’s been light-heartedly re-named the ‘Uni-Cornish Summer Beer Festival’ as it will highlight an extensive list of beer and cider from Cornwall.

As licensee Paul Needham explains, there are many historical links between the two areas, many based on shared mining heritage.

“Derbyshire miners were sent to work in the King's mines in Cornwall and Devon in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,” says Paul, a keen history buff.

“Then it’s known that Cornish miners migrated to this area to work in mines in North Staffordshire in the early nineteenth century, and in the Peak District in the mid-nineteenth century.

“And of course the famous Cornishware pottery design was first produced in 1926 by TG Green & Co in Church Gresley, just up the road from here.”

Cornish beers available during the festival will include:

Coastal – Handliner, Merry Maiden’s Mild, Angelina, Golden Hinde

Skinners – Heligan Honey, Ginger Tosser, Spriggan Ale, Keel Over, Figgy’s Brew, Cornish Knocker, Cornish Blonde

St Austell – Dartmoor, Proper Job, Tribute, Trelawny

Wooden Hand – Pirate’s Gold, Cornish Buccaneer, Black Pearl, Cornish Mutiny

Keltek: Keltek King, Trevithicks Revenge, 4K Mild

Frys: Blonde Chough, Ruby Chough, Haven, Bust Chough

Harbour: Light, Amber, Porter, IPA

Penpont: St Nonna's, Cornish Arvor, Shipwreck Coast, Roughtor

Cider: Cornish Orchards Medium

In the pub, Bass, Pedigree and Sharp’s Doom Bar will be on all weekend, plus a selection of Olympic beers.

Highly-regarded folk rock band Merry Hell headline the Unicorn’s event on Saturday July 28, with support from the Jay Tamkin Band. Music begins on Friday, July 27 with Midnight Pumpkin Trucks supported by Black Mariah. The festival starts with a tasting session on Thursday, July 26.

Organisers of the campaign to save the Wetmore Whistle live music venue in Burton – which is under threat following the financial failure of Burtfest – will be given a boost with money raised during the Unicorn’s four-day event.

A fund-raising raffle will take place over the weekend, offering prizes including two pairs of tickets to the Bearded Theory 2013 festival at Kedleston Hall, Derby (each pair worth £170).

Then during a barbecue on Sunday July 29, burgers and hot dogs will be on sale priced £3, with all the money going to the Whistle campaign. The afternoon features music from Paul Miro (Simon Friend’s Seismic Survey), Julie Collings, JP Cooper and Matt McGuinness.

Organisers of the Whistle campaign will be at the Unicorn to raise funds – it’s expected that they’ll be selling a new compilation CD featuring donated tracks from local artists.

Paul Needham adds: “I’m hoping we’ll have plenty of people down here to support live music and do something to help raise money for the Whistle campaign. It’s free admission to all our sessions, so people will hopefully be able to dig deep – and we’ve got three marquees so there’ll be no problem even if the weather’s bad.”

Food available during the festival will also include a hog roast, fish and chip van, as well as a full menu of restaurant and bar meals available in the pub. The Unicorn is on the Trent-Barton Villager V3 bus route between Derby and Burton upon Trent.