Cheers! More than 70 ales and cut-price entry at popular beer festival

A total of 72 different cask ales will be on offer when one of the biggest beer festivals in the West Midlands opens this week.

Organisers of the Dudley Winter Ales Fair raise prepare for the festival's opening: Front row: Robin Shields, Jan Hampton , Jo Sparks and Matt Sparks; behind: Andy Cartwright, Teresa Cartwright, Steve Tooth, John Corser, Andy Rex and Kevin Marshall. — DUDLEY COPYRIGHT NATIONAL WORLD STEVE LEATH 22/11/24Pics at Dudley Town Hall to plug the Winter Ales Festival. At the front is: Robin Shields, Jan Hampton , Jo Sparks, Matt Sparks, back: Andy Cartwright, Teresa Cartwright, Steve Tooth, John Corser, Andy Rex and Kevin Marshall.

Dudley Winter Ales Fair opens at Dudley Town Hall on Thursday, and will run until Saturday evening.

The event, which attracts beer lovers from across the region, is organised by volunteers from the Dudley and South Staffordshire branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra).

The emphasis will be on winter ales, with notable beers including Snowflake from Sarah Hughes brewery in Sedgley, which is the reigning Camra champion winter beer of Britain. There will be a cask of the beer, which is eight per cent by volume, for each day of the festival, as well as a cask of XXX from Brierley Hill's Bathams Brewery which will also be launched in its pubs that week.

The symbol for this year's festival will be the Dudley Bug trilobite inside a snowflake, marking the 50th anniversary of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley.

The fossils of the extinct sea creatures are found at the Wrens Nest in Dudley and one featured on the original coat of arms of the borough.

There will also be cider, wine and food available at the town hall in St James's Road.

The festival opens at 1pm on Thursday, and at 11am on Friday and Saturday. It closes at 10pm on Thursday and Friday, and at 8pm on the final day - unless the beer runs out before.

This year Camra members will be able to get in free by showing their membership card on Thursday and Friday. Non-Camra members will pay a £5 admission, half the price of last year.

For those buying advance tickets Camra members will pay £9 which will give them £10 worth of tokens to spend on drinks, saving £1. Non-members will pay £14 which will cover the cost of entrance, plus a provision of £10 tokens.

To pre purchase tickets, see the website tckty.camra.org.uk/e/309/dudley-winter-ales-fayre-2024

Thursday and Friday are open to over-18s only. Saturday is a "family day" and all ages are welcome. In addition, entrance is free for everyone on Saturday.

There will be live music on Friday and Saturday, with Beatlesque, the Voices Unlimited choir and the Ian Sutherland Band performing on Friday, and duo Rob Jones and Rob White on Saturday, along with Black Country folk group The Empty Can.

Branch members and guests will be judging the beer of the festival on the day before the opening of the event.