Record numbers for beer festival
The 2006 Great British Beer Festival has been hailed as a tremendous success by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).
Record numbers of people visited Earls Court between Tuesday August 1st and Saturday August 5th.
By the end of the festival more than 66,000 people had come through the doors.
Around 1,500 new members signed up and Tuesday's trade session was attended by more than 5,300.
CAMRA Festival Organiser Marc Holmes said:"This year's attendance has been phenomenal. It is likely that the change of venue from our former home at Olympia and the introduction of third of a pint measures roused peoples' curiosity, and the numbers were way up this year.
"Interestingly, although the attendance figures shot up, the number of pints sold was around what we expected. This means people were drinking responsibly and were more interested in quality rather than quantity."
Holmes added: "I would particularly like to thank all those CAMRA volunteers who have given up their free time to work at the festival - we had the highest number of volunteer staff ever with over 1000 people working over a ten day period."
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Your CommentsJohn Ellis, Crown Inn, Oakengates via email, 8/08/2006I attended the G.B.B.F. and thoroughly enjoyed it, although the cost and hassle of getting there and back were such that I probably won't go every year. As a British (as opposed to London) festival, I look forward to it moving periodically around the country as it used to, not just sticking to a remote far south-east corner of the country. Otherwise, it is in danger of becoming the G.L.B.F. Why not try somewhere like Birmingham or Manchester - excellent communication around the country, without all the London expenses?
