Beer, music, food and some much-needed fundraising is the aim of Malmesbury Victoria Football Club beer festival next week.

The cash-strapped club has received resounding support from the community since it started appealing for help to get the club back above board after it was hit badly by the floods of 2012 and 2013.

One such person to come forward was Martin Bridge, the former landlord of The Smoking Dog, who offered to help organise a beer festival to raise funds for the club.

Julie Exton, treasurer at Malmesbury Vics, said: “We have had the miserable times at the club, and the times when we have been down, but this will be a way of raising money and thanking people for supporting us.”

The beer festival will take place at the Flying Monk Grounds at 4pm on Friday, May 23, until 11.30pm, and again on the Saturday and Sunday from noon.

Malmesbury Vics Football Club announced last month that they would have to drop out of the Hellenic League into the Wiltshire League after struggling to pay match fees.

The decision came after the club also admitted it was having trouble paying bills, such as the electricity.

While finances have been low at the club for a while, problems really hit as a result of the flooding which swamped the pitch and clubhouse and left the organisation without income from matches and with clean-up bills and pump hire costs to pay.