'Record-breaking' attendance at GBBF

The Great British Beer Festival defied gloomy economic expectations as visitor numbers jumped by 3,000 on last year, leading to a "record-breaking" event.

Attendance rose from 64,000 to 66,922.

To cope with demand, beer was poured at more than 75 pints per minute.

Visitors consumed 200,000 pints from the 500 different beers on offer at Earls Court.

Despite the festival's name, beer wasn't the only tipple on offer, as 15,048 pints of cider and 6,840 pints of perry were also consumed.

This year more than 1,000 Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) volunteers signed up to staff the event, and the consumer group managed to recruit another 1,000 members.

CAMRA chief executive Mike Benner said: "I think, like everyone else, we were concerned that the state of the economy might have affected us, but it has been a record-breaking week.

"People are turning towards real ale and are interested in trying it."

GBBF opened to the trade on Tuesday, 3 August, and stayed open to the public until Saturday, 7 August.

The theme of the festival was "Military Heroes" to reflect this year's charity, the Royal British Legion.