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Sell Out Success for Seventh Annual Fest More than 4,100 visitors packed into the Winter Garden this weekend for Eastbourne�s seventh annual Beer Festival making it a record year for the real ale event. Tickets for Friday and Saturday night sold out before doors even opened with Friday tickets sold out over a month before the festival. With extra casks of ales, ciders and perries drafted in this year, visitors topped last year�s consumption drinking 13,000 pints of beer, 1,400 pints of cider and perry, 2,100 bottled beers and 1,400 glasses of wine over the three day event. Eastbourne Borough Council Cabinet Member for Tourism, Cllr Susan Morris said �What a fantastic event! The Beer Festival is always extremely popular attracting early ticket sales but this year has exceeded all expectations! Visitors bought more drinks tokens this year, with Thursday being the busiest opening night in the event�s history. �Not only is the Beer Festival a great event for the local community, it is also very popular with visitors to the resort and offers a brilliant feel good atmosphere with everyone making the most of the entertainment and enjoying tasters of some of the region�s best local brews. I can�t wait for next year�s event!� With a total of 4,159 visitors across the four sessions, this year�s festival saw an 11% increase on 2008 visitors and an 18% increase on 2007. More visitors than ever also meant that the number of beer tokens sold increased by 18%, with the Cider and Perry Bar completely selling out on Saturday night. Thursday evening and Saturday day enjoyed their best sessions ever in the event�s six-year history with 1,700 visitors across the two sessions, a 40% increase on 2008 visitors with festival fans making the most of the 2 for 1 offer on Thursday tickets. Other festival highlights included a top bill of entertainment over the weekend including No Exit opening the show on Thursday evening, with Marcella Aldous packing the Devonshire Halls on Friday for a great acoustic set, while Saturday included the return of the popular Oompah Brass. And with even more awards added this year, including Cider and Perry of the Festival sponsored by Middle Farm, it was a Sussex triumph for Dark Star Brewery based at Ansty near Haywards Heath who scooped the prestigious title of Best at Festival. Eastbourne Beer Festival will return next year from 7-9 October 2010. |
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