The annual Ale Tasting and Bread Weighing ceremony is an entertaining tradition celebrating an important ancient role of Ashburton's ancient Court. Each year on the third Saturday in July a procession weaves its way through the town, many of the participants dressed in a motley variety of mediaeval garb and cheering and laughing at the spectacle that unfolds at each pub and bakery in the town. Bread and ale were important staples of the mediaeval diet Ashburton’s Ale Tasting