Dream festival for beer buffs

From the Witney Gazette, first published Saturday 7th Jul 2007.

THE small west Oxfordshire town of Charlbury is preparing for its third festival in less than a month - a must-go-to event for ale lovers.

Following the free Riverside music festival in June and next weekend's Cornbury Festival - with local bands and dancers joining the big stars - the town will host its tenth annual beer festival on July 14.

And organisers are breaking all previous records by laying on an array of 36 real ales, enough to satisfy any Camra enthusiast.

Rob Stepney said: "That brings to over 150 the number of tasty brews that have been offered to discerning drinkers at this highly successful event."

Last year, the festival, in the town's Memorial Hall, raised more than £5,000 in support of Charlbury Primary School and local community projects, including the Shed Theatre and Street Stage.

Mr Stepney said the festival had grown not just in the number of ales it offered but in its fundraising ability since the first event in 1998 when £1,300 profit was made for the primary school.

He said: "In 2005, the festival became an independent charity. Though the school remains the principal beneficiary, this allows the committee to give money to other local good causes."

This year, the family-friendly festival includes live music and children's entertainment. It runs from noon until 11pm and also features ciders, wines and soft drinks, and fresh food. Among the ales are Spectrum's Old Stoatwobbler, Milestone's Hoptimism, Hadrian and Border's Vallum, Beartown's Ginger Bear, and a Dewsbury-brewed speciality Tabatha the Knackered.

Mr Stepney said they had searched far and wide to make it a beer enthusiasts' dream. "The sources of the ales span the country from the Isle of Arran to Truro, from Porthmadog to Norfolk - and there'll be a porter, a mild, a stout and wheat beers."

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