Once again the festival was a great success. Firstly we would like to extend a hearty thank you to all those that worked at the festival, without your help the festival could not take place.

With 20% more customers through the gate compared to last year it was the biggest and best festival Nottingham CAMRA has successfully run to date. In fact it was so popular that we had to close the gates on Saturday evening to non-ticket holders as we had reached virtually full capacity, advanced ticket holders were, of course, still allowed in.

Despite rumours to the contrary, we did not run out of beer on Saturday and there was still a small amount of beer remaining when the bars closed at 11pm, although admittedly not enough to justify opening on Sunday. The only beers that did run out at during Saturday evening were those in the bar next to the entertainment and hot food stalls. This meant that unfortunately customers did have to walk up and discover the wide array of beers still available in the main marquee before many wandered back down to have a delicious bite to eat and hear some great music.

After bringing in emergency supplies of beer late on Friday and early on Saturday morning the total amount of beer sold was 900 firkins, a massive 110,000 half pint servings, which is a 25% increase on last year. The number of different cask ales served at the festival is still being verified but at a figure exceeding 680 we are pretty certain that it will prove to be a world record.

Cider and Perry also proved even more popular than last year, despite increasing the original order by 50% on last year we still had to bring in emergency supplies on Saturday morning, meaning that we virtually doubled last year’s consumption.

It is important to remember that the festival is organised and run by volunteers giving up their own time. I personally took eight days away from my business to help run the festival, often working 15-hours days and I actually worked 18 hours on the Friday. It does place a major burden on those who organise the festival and the few members who volunteer to help set-up and take-down and we could certainly use more help next year.