More than two thousand revelers from across Cornwall and beyond descended on St Austell Brewery for its popular Celtic Beer Festival last weekend.
The day-long festival sees the Victorian cellars of the brewery transformed into a packed venue with five bars featuring more than 100 beers and complete with live music.
A huge £20,000 was raised for charity through the event – which is more than a 50% uplift in fundraising efforts compared to 2019. Despite being four years since the last event owing to the pandemic, the thirst for endless beer and a good sing along with the Fisherman’s Friends was still top priority for those who joined.
Beer from more than 50 breweries was donated to the festival, with all profits from ticket sales going to the St Austell Brewery Charitable Trust, which supports local charities and worthy causes across the South West.
The trust recently celebrated raising a landmark £1 million since it was established in 2003 - previous fundraising events have included a trek to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, raffles, ale tastings and quizzes, but the annual Celtic Beer Festival remains the trust’s flagship fundraising activity.
Punters queued around the brewery to get into the popular event and grab one of the many thousands of pints pulled throughout the day.
Georgina Young, brewing director at St Austell Brewery said:
“The 22nd Celtic Beer Festival surpassed all our expectations. It was a huge team effort to prepare and run the event and I thank everyone in the company for their support."
“The array of 112 different beers from us and our other brewing friends across the country were really well received. I’m very proud of our brewing teams in St Austell and at Hare Brewery – our second production site in Warmley - who created a wide spread of beers including a cherry Rauchbier, a mango weizen, a mild and a wee heavy! All of which were excellent.”