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GBBF Drunk Dry
The Great British Beer Festival, which took place last month in Olympia,
started with almost 250,000 pints and was left with only 96 bottles
of imported beer when the Festival closed on the Saturday night. The
Festival attracted over 41,000 visitors over the 5 days it was open
and was staffed by 700+ unpaid volunteers, including many from London's
CAMRA branches. The UK beer market offers more choice and diversity
than in most of our European neighbours; our 400 brewers produce some
2500 different real ales. Most brew beers to match local tastes and it
is that which makes British beer so unique and worthy of celebration.
Mike Benner, CAMRA's Head of Campaigns and Communications said "We
certainly had a celebration here at the Festival. Our visitors were up
3% on last year. And what was particularly pleasing was that there was
an increase in the number of under 30s and women attending. So much for
the media image of real ale drinkers being middle aged men with sandals!"
In addition, the Festival's sales of real cider were up a staggering 20%.
Mike commented "Real cider is difficult to find in most pubs. We have
visitors who only come for this drink and will touch nothing else. This
increasing support from Britain's drinkers reflects that there is a real
market for the real stuff". Next year the GBBF will be 31st July to
4th August.
Reproduced from the Full Pint, Issue 6.
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