Frocester Beer Festival

Charities in Gloucestershire will benefit from revellers who downed more than 20,000 pints of beer and cider and 700 bottles of wine at Frocester Beer Festival. The 29th annual event attracted 5,000 visitors, many of whom camped over the weekend.

And those whose eyes were not too bleary from the beer spotted this year's unintended mistake.For all 5,162 Frocester Beer Festival mugs had the word Frocester spelt as Frochester. The organisers, Dursley Lions Club, are looking into how the mistake happened. "Unfortunately by the time all the glasses were delivered, it was too late to get the mistake rectified.It was not our error" said livid beer festival chairman Neil Baldwin. "Although it was an error, it made this year's festival mugs even more cherished than usual for their novelty value".

Frocester Beer Festival brings out many groups of regulars who dress up especially for the occasion, often in bizarre costumes or specially designed shirts. "Dressing up is now all part of the fun weekend for many of our visitors," Mr Baldwin added. "We really appreciate the tolerance and understanding of the residents of Frocester who put up with our event every year and help make it the success it is".

This year for the first time, among the 123 brews from 54 breweries in England, Scotland and Wales, was a cask of "Reverend Janet". The beer was brewed by Uley Brewery to mark the fund raising efforts of the Rev Janet Bromley, Rector of Dursley.She has been pulling pints in the town's Old Spot pub to raise funds for the £500,000 repairs and improvements programme at St James The Great church in Dursley. The Rev Janet was at the festival to try out a pint of the special brew and gave it her blessing.

Since it was formed in 1981, Dursley Lions have given away £1.5 million raised through the beer festival and sales of donated furniture at their Dursley store on Saturday mornings. "Dursley Lions pioneered recycling long before it became the in word," said Mr Baldwin.