Record Year for Eastbourne Beer Fest

14th October 2008

Beer Festival
A total of 3,743 visitors packed into the sixth Eastbourne Beer Festival this weekend making it a record year for the real ale event with Friday and Saturday night selling out before doors had even opened.

 

Demand for advance tickets for this year's festival hit an all time high as beer enthusiasts booked their tickets early with the Friday night session selling out over two weeks ago. 2,400 festival goers filled the Winter Garden on Friday and Saturday night sampling more than 120 different ales, fine wines, ciders and perries, with Thursday evening and Saturday afternoon also seeing almost a 15% increase in visitors compared to 2007.

 

Eastbourne Borough Council Spokesperson for Tourism, Cllr Steve Wallis said "2008 has been a fantastic year for the Eastbourne Beer Festival and it's brilliant to see so many people coming along to taste a huge selection of beers with many produced locally. Every year the festival gets bigger and better and boasting such a good reputation, it's no wonder it continues to be a sell-out success."

 

Thursday evening and Saturday day enjoyed their best sessions ever in the event's six-year history with over 1,200 visitors across the two sessions.

 

Thursday customers enjoyed first dibs on the ale with Gypsy Swing entertainment from band Lackadaisy, while Saturday visitors enjoyed tasting talks from Roger Green, the Head Brewer of Beachy Head Brewery, and Miles Jenner, the iconic Head Brewer of Harveys.

 

Festival goers consumed more than 11,700 pints of real ale over the three day festival, drinking an average three pints each. Barmen also served a total of 2,268 bottles of beer, over 240 bottles of wine and cleared 27 barrels of cider.

 

Harveys of Lewes' Star of Eastbourne scooped Beer of the Festival, with CAMRA's Sussex Microbrew going to Beachy Head Brewery's Legless Rambler and the Sussex exemption award to Frog Island Croak and Stagger.

 

And for the first time this year, Eastbourne Beer Festival also hosted a judging round of the Champion Beer of Britain award. A panel of judges led by Peter Page-Mitchell of South East Sussex CAMRA gave first place to West Berkshire's Doctor Hexters Healer, with Dark Star's Festival and Fullers' ESB coming second and third. The results have been sent to CAMRA HQ along with results from across the country to decide the champion beer for the whole of the UK.

 

Other festival highlights across the three days included Friday's Jam Night, with budding local musicians taking to the stage to raise money for St Wilfrid's Hospice, Big Al's Trio entertaining visitors with their Boogie Woogie, and Marcella Aldous provided an impressive acoustic set on Saturday night.

 

Eastbourne Beer Festival will return next year from 8-10 October 2009. For more information visit www.eastbournebeerfestival.co.uk or www.visiteastbourne.com or telephone 0871 663 0031.