16th
July 2010: Biggest Ever Success at Hove!
This year’s Sussex CAMRA Branches’
Beer and Cider Festival, which was held
on 11-13 March at Hove Town Hall, was the
most successful festival ever. Of the five
sessions, four were completely sold out;
the Friday evening session sold out in a
record of 5 days and only the Friday lunchtime
still had tickets left.
Headway, this year’s festival charity,
based in Newick, raised an extraordinary
£1,500: £951 was collected in
unused tokens, and the Headway team collected
another £316.60 in cash. A special
"Thank You" to the Kissingate
Brewery, who donated a barrel of their excellent
First Kiss, which raised another £200.
The rest was rounded up by the Festival.
The picture below shows Ingrid Sharp, newly
elected organiser for next year, with Gerry
Harris from Headway at the Brighton &
South Downs Beer and Cider Festival held
at Lewes, where the cheque was handed over.
Counting the voting slips and comment forms
yielded the following results:
- Beer of the Festival: Crouch Vale Amarillo
- Bev Robbins Trophy: Harvey's Lewes
Castle Brown Ale
- Cider of the Festival: Hunt's Cider
(this was incorrectly listed as Sedlescombe
- Cider, Sedlescombe is where Hunt's are
based)
- Perry of the Festival: Heck's Blakeney
Red
Most people’s comments were positive:
super festival, with great beers, good food,
friendly staff and a fantastic atmosphere.
A very big “Thank You” to everyone
who helped to make this possible. The most
common criticism was that the hall had been
too cold, and we shall endeavour to address
that. If you would like to provide some
feedback yourself, please contact the committee
at sussexbeerfest@yahoo.co.uk
.
Next year’s festival will be held
10-12 March. For this, the organising committee
is seeking dedicated CAMRA members to help
with organising the Trade Session, co-ordinating
equipment needed at the festival and getting
involved with membership. If you are interested
or simply want to find out more, please
get in touch via the above email address. |
