Record numbers pulled in by the taste of real ale

by MA Reporter

The Campaign for Real Ale's Great British Beer Festival saw a record 47,000 visitors at London's Olympia last week.

This is an increase of nearly 2,000 people over last year, making this Camra's most successful beer festival ever.

Louise Ashworth, from Camra, said: 'We are delighted that this has been Camra's most successful beer festival ever. We had over 47,000 visitors through the door and sold a record amount of British beer, with 240,000 pints pulled over the five days.

'The most popular beer on sale at the festival was Crouch Vale Brewers Gold which was also the winner of this year's Champion Beer of Britain competition. Despite placing an early re-order for this beer, we still had to ration it and at one point it was selling at a rate of 144 pints every 20 minutes.

Not only did the festival see a record attendance, it was also a record year for new membership subscriptions with nearly 1,000 visitors signing up for Camra membership and a record number of corporate visitors more than 1,400 in total. Added Ashworth: one of the best things about being on site at Olympia throughout the week is seeing the high proportion of young visitors during the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings.

'If we can attract tens of thousands of under 30s to one beer festival, think what this means for the future of real ale.

'I also think our record number of visitors this year really demonstrates that we are ready to move to Earls Court, which offers more space and

better transport links, and we are already planning our move in 2006.

The Great British Beer Festival will be held at Earls Court in 2006 from 1 to 5 August. GBBF's stats and facts

More than 47,000 visitors

240,000 pints pulled

1,000 new Camra members

1,400 corporate guests

Community Pubs Foundation launched

A wedding reception held for the first time in the corporate lounge

More than 1,000 visitors attended tutored tastings