[Official Press Release Number 1]

The Sussex CAMRA Branches 17th Beer & Cider Festival will be held at the Hove Centre, Norton Road, Hove, from Thursday 8th to Saturday 10th March 2007.

The Festival has a new organiser for 2007 - Mike Lockyer, whom regular visitors will know from previous festivals as the bearded, balding chief steward (and bets are already being taken on how much balder he's going to be by the end of the Festival!).

The 2006 festival featured over 200 beers from 133 breweries around the country - our best yet. It was also our best in terms of attendance, with nearly 4,000 visitors over the five sessions. For 2007, we are aiming to offer at least as great a variety of draught beers, plus the usual excellent selection of ciders, perries, English and foreign bottled beers and English Country Wines. The majority of these will be served from the bars in the Main Hall, where there will also be musical entertainment on the Friday and Saturday evenings (TBC on Friday and Zen House on Saturday), whilst the Quiet Bar will again feature Sussex ales, plus speciality beers. On the Balcony, the Festival caterers, (we have managed to secure the services of The Splendid Meat Company), will be providing food, including vegetarian options – real food to accompany real ale.

The Festival charity will again be The Martlets Hospice, Hove, and plans are afoot for a special beer to mark this association.

Unfortunately for those Festival fans who like to partake of the evil weed with their pint, there will be no smoking permitted anywhere in The Hove Centre in 2007 - we were allowed to have a smoking room in 2006 only because our booking had been made before the ruling was brought in.

Opening times for the Festival together with the ticket prices are as follows:

Tickets for the Festival - on sale from January - will be available at the usual outlets (Brighton & Hove: the Hove & Brighton Centres, The Evening Star, The Sir Charles Napier; Shoreham: The Buckingham Arms; Lewes: The Gardener's Arms; Worthing: The Selden Arms), or by post from SCBCF Ticket Sales, 14 Clover Lane, Ferring, Worthing, BN12 5LZ (Tel: 01903 504409). For postal applications, please state the session(s) for which you require tickets, and enclose an SAE with your payment, which should be by cheque or Postal Order made payable to “CAMRA Sussex Beer Festival”. To avoid disappointment on the day it is advisable to buy tickets in advance particularly for the very popular Friday and Saturday evening sessions. The ticket price includes a souvenir programme and, for CAMRA members, beer tokens worth £2 on presentation of their membership card. For the Saturday evening, a £2 concession will be available to students buying tickets at the Hove Centre on production of a Students Union card.

If you need to get hold of Mike, he can be contacted on 01273 386659, or at mikethepipe@ntlworld.com, or go to www.sussexbeerfestival.co.uk for further information.

Mike Lockyer
Festival Organiser