Thousands expected at Bradford Beer Festival (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Thousands expected at Bradford Beer Festival

7:00am Thursday 23rd February 2012 in Bradford By James Rush

Thousands of real ale lovers were expected to flock to the district today for the beginning of this year’s Bradford Beer Festival.

More than 100 ales were due to be available to try out at the event, in Victoria Hall, Saltaire, which is expected to attract up to 3,000 visitors over the course of three days.

The event, organised by the Bradford Campaign for Real Ale branch (Camra), and which has been running for more than 30 years in the district, was also due to feature about 15 real ciders and perrys.

Bradford Camra chairman Tony Constable said a selection of foreign beers was due to be on offer at the event, which was first held in the village in 1998, although all draught beers were from England or Scotland.

He said: “We try to promote LocAle – we try to support local breweries so we don’t have to transport beer from hundreds and hundreds of miles away.

“We try and save on beer miles, although obviously it doesn’t always work out like that.”

Mr Constable said many of Bradford Camra’s 850 members would be helping out during the festival, which runs until Saturday, along with members of other nearby branches including Keighley and Leeds.

He said: “It is the highlight of the branch’s year, to hold the beer festival.

“Certainly in Saltaire we get a lot of visitors. There’s many people who turn up and obviously the local businesses do very well.

“We start building the festival on the Sunday prior to the event and people are here from the Sunday during what we call the set-up time.

“There’s a lot of people here and this coming Sunday there will be people here dismantling the festival. Obviously lots of people take the whole week off work to come and work for nothing, to promote everybody’s love of real ale.”

Mr Constable said about 30 tickets were still available, although organisers have said there will be 300 tickets available on the door for its Friday night session, after postal tickets sold out.

Tickets will also be available on the door for the Friday lunchtime session.

For sessions other than those on Friday, tickets are sold at the Corn Dolly & Fighting Cock in Bradford, Symposium in Idle, Junction in Baildon, Fanny's Ale & Cider House in Saltaire, Brown Cow in Keighley, Bar T’at in Ilkley and Grove in Leeds.

e-mail: james.rush@telegraphandargus.co.uk Twitter: @jamesrushTandA