Fans of real ale and cider flocked to Oldham last week for the return of the borough's annual beer festival which marked its 33rd year.
The festival was held in the Queen Elizabeth Hall and supports the Mayor of Oldham’s Charity Appeal fund.
Festivalgoers had to pay a £3 entry charge, but it was free for those who were a CAMRA member.
@theoldhamtimes Oldham Beer Festival returned this weekend, serving up 3,000 pints. It will return next April 🍻 #Oldham #Beer #Cider #CAMRA ♬ original sound - The Oldham Times
Breweries on display included Bury’s Deeply Vale, Norwhich’s Humpty Dumpty and Rochdale’s Wakey Wakey, among others from across the country.
Festival organiser Andy Cooper said: “We’re here to raise money for the Mayor of Oldham’s charities.
“Last year after Covid it was very much a touch and feel how it goes event, we didn’t know how people would react to it, we were pleasantly surprised it went down well.
“We seem to have a lot more coming through the doors, there’s a lot more people than there were last year.
“We’ve got 50 casks of beer with us, there’s probably about 60 pints in each, in total there’s 3000 pints to be drunk over the weekend.”
Beers from Saddleworth’s Donkeystone Brewery were planned to make an appearance, before a surprise announcement that the brewery would be shutting its doors for good last month.
Organiser Andy said: “From a festival organiser’s point of view it’s a bit of an inconvenience because we’d ordered two casks off of them which obviously we knew a week before we weren’t going to get, but we have several breweries within the Rochdale, Oldham and Bury branch who were more than willing to supply us with the two extra casks.
“It’s one of these things where breweries are under increasing pressure from all angles, in effect, it’s been a hard recovery from Covid, the tax burden is incredible, there’s been not a great of help from central government to breweries and to pubs, there really needs to be a bit more.
“It’s just tragic that a brewery which had a decent track record has fallen under, but unfortunately it’s one of many casualties we’ve had over the years.”
It wasn’t just beer on sale – cider and perry, made from pears, were on offer too.
Mike Robinson, the cider bar manager, said: “This year we have an excellent supply of real ciders made with fresh apple juice and fresh pear juice, nothing artificial, nothing from concentrate, as far as I’m concerned it’s one of your five a day.
“There’s nothing to make you feel you shouldn’t love them, because they’re from pure fruit.”
Following the festival, it has been confirmed that the 34th event will be held on Friday, April 12 and Saturday, April 13 next year.
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