CAMPAIGN FOR REAL ALE

2010 Festival Round Up
Great British Beer Festival, 3-7 Aug 2010

9 August 2010
By John McCann

It has been another record-breaking year for the Great British Beer Festival and we are delighted to announce an increase of almost 5% in attendance figures from last year's festival, making this year our biggest ever.

Festival highlights:

1. 66,922 through the door - up from 64,000 last year, which is an increase of almost 5%.


2. 6,700 trade visitors attended the Trade Session on Tuesday afternoon.


3. Over 1,000 new members joined CAMRA.


4. Over 200,000 pints were sold at the Festival at a rate of over 75 pints poured per minute.


5. 1881 gallons of cider, and 855 gallons of perry were sold throughout the week.


6. Over 1,000 volunteers pitched in to help out at the Festival, making it a massive team effort.


7. Champion Beer of Britain went to Castle Rock's Harvest Pale (Nottingham).


8. The Champion Bottled Beer of Britain was St Austell's Admiral Ale which as a result will feature in Travelodge bars and cafes as a result of their sponsorship of this competition.


9. Smuttynose brewery's Big A IPA wiped the competition clean in the Michael Jackson Award (American cask beer competition), coming out as the winner.


10. 10. CAMRA staged the longest and fastest beer trail from Land's End to John O'Groats. The trail was hosted by Official London Ale Taster and over 800 people tuned in.


11. CAMRA found that the north east of England was the area of Britain with the highest growth in the number of people trying real ale (from 33% to 74% in just 2 years!).


12. CAMRA and the Beer Academy combined forces at the start of the week to convey the message that drinking beer can be part of a healthy lifestyle.


13. Around 500 visitors attended tutored tastings plus a further 75 attended Melissa Cole's Girls' Guide to Beer tours

Festival Videos
Look back at the highlights from this year's festival.

Festival Photos
Check out all the photos from this year's festival. Have you made it into one of the galleries?

Beercasts
Listen to Mark Phillips as he discussed various issues throughout the week.