THE 25th Rhythm and Brews beer festival in Darlington was such a success, organisers ran out of ale before the end of the event.

The festival at Darlington Arts Centre, which ran from Thursday to Saturday, proved so popular, almost 2,000 people attended to sample some of the 46 draught beers, five ciders and 15 bottled beers from Europe and the US.

The event, organised by the Darlington branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), also featured four bands, and attracted people from all over the country, and from as far away as Belgium.

One of the organisers, Brendan Boyle, said: "Unfortunately we ran out of draught beer by quarter past nine on Saturday night and out of bottled beer by ten o'clock.

"We even had three beers in reserve, but they all went as well. We had around 400 people through the door on Saturday lunchtime and the greedy gluttons must have drunk more than their share of the beer. We started the night with 15 different draught beers, but they were gone in no time. It's only the second time we have sold out of beer.

"It's great news because it goes to show how popular real ale is, but we would have liked the beer to have lasted a bit longer - usually we have a staff party afterwards, but we couldn't do that this time."

The winner of the best beer voted for by customers over the festival was Figgy's Brew, from Cornish brewery Skinners.

Published: 20/09/2004