Join GBBF's birthday bash

If you haven't been already, there's still time to get yourself down to Earl's Court and sample some of the finest alcoholic beverages mankind has ever produced. The Great British Beer Festival's doors stay open until 7pm on Saturday, but don't leave it too late in the day as nearly 300,000 pints will have been pulled and sunk by then and the best beers - and certainly the champion beer - are down to the dregs.

There's another reason for going this year. It's the festival's 30th birthday, and that really is worth celebrating. Ideal Homes exhibitions may have a longer heritage, but there can't be many other consumer shows that are still going strong 30 years after launch. Happy birthday, and congratulations!

Some in the trade still feel the vast concrete exhibition halls, with their spartan trimmings, are not the best way to promote real ale. Go to the best wine shows, they say, and you'll see how we should really be doing it if ale is ever to buff up its image.

Fine, if you've got the bottomless pockets of national wine agencies who, along with the European Union, underwrite these shows.

With ale in Britain, we must cut our cloth to suit our pocket. And frankly, without the devoted commitment of hundreds of Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) members who give up their holiday time for free, there would be no national real-ale showcase - and we'd all be the poorer for it. Ask the British Beer & Pub Association: they know how hard it's been to make a success of their northern beer and food show.

This year's GBBF has been another massive success for ale - and the final tally may show that visitors top 70,000 for the first time. Hopefully the media will not have searched for sandal-wearing beardies, as it usually does, much to the irritation of all who are trying to recruit fresh support. The truth is that typical new ale drinkers are found amongst affluent thirtysomethings, as a major report we produced jointly with CGA last week clearly showed.

Among other encouraging findings in our 2 August edition was the fact that one in five pubs has increased its number of cask pumps. Not always the right step say some, but as long as throughput justifies it, this is great news.

Beer generally is still sliding, and real ale is taking its share of the pain. But how much worse might that pain be were it not for a show like GBBF. So well done Camra. And see you there, again, and again, and again...