Town's beer festival enjoys successful return

A town's ever-popular beer festival enjoyed a "successful" return over the weekend, with more than 3,000 pints sold over three days.

The Beccles Beer Festival was one of the many events cancelled in 2020 in a bid to limit infections during the coronavirus pandemic.

But this year, the three-day event made its eagerly-anticipated return when it celebrated its ninth installment in 10 years, with new measures in place to keep visitors safe.

The festival which began on Friday (November 12) and finished on Sunday (November 14) took place at Beccles Public Hall and Theatre and showcased 35 ales, ciders and lager from 20 local breweries.

Shaun Crowley, managing director of Beccles Lido Limited, said: "It's gone really well. We were a little bit nervous when we were organising the event.

"There is still a degree of nervousness about, with Covid still about, so we really wanted to bring it back this year but in a safe way so we considered how to do it with reasonable numbers."

Visitors were limited to avoid crowds at what were peak times in previous years, although guests could still turn up without a ticket if the hall was not at capacity.

Mr Crowley said the festival would normally see about 1,500 people over three days.

This year, by Sunday morning, approximately 850 people had enjoyed the event.

"I think we'll probably have seen about a thousand people over the whole weekend. As of Saturday night, we had sold 3,000 pints and we're selling a fair few more today (Sunday)," he said.

"It's been successful but it's been safe. It's been busy but not crowded. We couldn't have asked for better."

The festival is an important fundraising event for Beccles Lido, an open-air swimming pool in the town.

Mr Crowley said: "I just think it's important we begin to bring back community events. And that's what we're all about."

As with the first installment of the festival 10 years ago, this year's event also fell on Remembrance Sunday - and Mr Crowley said he was pleased to see veterans wearing their medals attend on Sunday morning.

The response from visitors was "excellent," he said.

"Everyone is so pleased it's back."