Volunteers gear up for Great British Beer Festival
What do an investment banker, a teacher, an IT consultant and a bus driver have in common? They are all part of the team of volunteers who helped organise this year's Great British Beer Festival (GBBF).
The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) expects a record attendance of 65,000 visitors at the Publican backed festival, all served by 1,000 volunteer members.
Festival organiser Marc Holmes said he wanted to draw attention to the work of the volunteer members and combat the view that the festival - which gets underway on Tuesday - is run by brewers.
He said: "It's a slick operation these days and it gives me a real sense of pride when I see the empty hall turn into a festival packed with beer and people enjoying it socially.
"I think many people think the festival is run by brewers, but CAMRA organises the whole lot and carries all the risk. We are determined to encourage as many adults as possible to try the joys of real ale. We're convinced they'll be converted and will choose real ale in pubs and come back to the festival again and again."
He said beer lovers see the festival as "an alternative holiday".
"People sometimes tell me I'm mad when I could spend my annual holiday in the sun, but we don't see this as giving up our holidays. We are collectively driven by our enthusiasm and commitment to real ale and to promoting it to as many people as possible.
"We couldn't run the festival without our unique team of volunteers from across the country as it simply wouldn't be viable economically. It's difficult to think of any other event which attracts such huge volunteer support. As pubs face difficult times it shows great commitment that so many people care about this great British product, real ale."
Volunteers take on an array of roles including stewarding, serving the bars, giving tutored beer tastings and delivering and unloading hundreds of thousands of pints of beer and stacks of cooling equipment.
The GBBF is CAMRA's flagship event, but it also runs 140 local beer festivals throughout the year, all organised and manned by its volunteers.
