[This
article was originally written for the Sussex
Drinker magazine]
With record attendances at every session
(except Friday night when we are always
at capacity), and with more beers and ciders
available (and drunk) than ever before,
it can be truly said that this year’s
Sussex Beer & Cider Festival exceeded
all expectations and was an enormous success.
Over 3,800 people attended in total (over
500 more than last year’s record)
and drank 218 cask beers, 35 ciders and
perries, numerous bottled beers and a large
amount of local fruit wines. For the first
time ever all tickets were sold for Saturday
night. As the beer and cider was running
pretty low by this time, thanks to that
great band – The Rhythm Method –
for keeping our customers well and truly
entertained. I must mention Karl Bashford
who also did an excellent job on Friday
night playing music we wanted to hear and
at the right volume.
Despite increasing our beer order by 35
casks and trebling the number of ciders
and parries, by closing time on Saturday
night there was virtually no beer and cider
to be had. I think that there were only
about a dozen casks that had any beer left
and we were down to our last cider.
Probably the most successful innovation
this year was the separate Sussex Bar downstairs
in the Banqueting Suite at Hove Town Hall.
For all our sessions, this Bar attracted
a crowd of very happy drinkers and at times
appeared to be busier than the Main Bar
in the Grand Hall. Speaking to a number
of our customers and to our Sussex Brewers,
all said how much they liked the idea of
the Sussex beers being together and something
to be repeated next year. I must mention
the St Patrick’s Stout from the Fallen
Angel Brewery. For the first time I believe,
we had a beer selling out during the Friday
lunchtime session!!!
At the risk of this report sounding like
an Oscar’s acceptance speech, there
are a number of people who I would like
to thank. Without their hard work, the Festival
would not be held. Firstly, the unsung heroes
who do our set-up and take-down. This is
very physical work but everything went to
plan, a brilliant effort. Next, all our
volunteers who helped during the festival.
We had more helpers this year which enabled
us to give an even better service to our
customers and meant more breaks allowing
our helpers to enjoy the beer more as well.
One of the great successes was the quality
of the beer, from the range of beer ordered
to how it was kept. Many thanks to Roy Bond,
our Beer Organiser for such an excellent
selection which has received many accolades
from our customers and to Pete Thompson,
our Cellarman, for ensuring that the beer
was in great condition and at the right
temperature throughout the event. I must
mention Jackie Johnson for the organising
of the cider – another great job done.
Lastly and by no means least, I would like
to thank all the people who helped in the
preparation of the Festival and who had
to suffer the long meetings. At least I
held the meetings in The Romans so that
we had some good beer to drink during our
discussions.
Thanks also go to our pub outlets who helped
to sell the tickets. Great work by Andy
from The Gardeners at Lewes, Matt and Karen
from the Evening Star and Jeremy from The
Sir Charles Napier in Brighton, Keith from
the Buckingham in Shoreham and Michelle
and Bob from the Selden in Worthing.
As many of you who were present during
the Friday lunchtime session will realise,
we were invaded by several different groups
of media. We had local radio, freelance
radio, internet and podcast plus Meridian
TV News Team. After being interviewed by
all these people, I have decided to retire
from Beer Festival Organising and to seek
a career in Entertainment. Therefore, I
would like to wish my successor, Mike Lockyer,
every success for the 17th Sussex CAMRA
Branches Beer & Cider Festival to be
held at Hove Town Hall on 8th, 9th and 10th
March 2007.
Peter Betteridge
Festival Organiser, 16th Sussex Branches
Beer & Cider Festival
|