So did you go to the Bournemouth Beer Festival? I was there for the Saturday evening session.

First let’s get the negatives out of the way. Signage at the BIC could have been better.

When I arrived the front door of the BIC was locked and there was just a sign saying ‘Beer Festival - Use Purbeck Hall Entrance’ and an arrow pointing up Exeter Road.

A little map showing how to get to the entrance would have helped! Another grumble was the catering; OK this is Dorset where everything is at a premium price, but £6.50 for a couple of sausages and a dollop of mash was a bit excessive - the staff even had the nerve to make comments about keeping the change when I handed over a £10 note.

Catering people, please go to ‘Pigs Ears Festival’ in East London in December and see how it should be done. I must admit the gravy was very nice though.

Now onto the positives, of which there were many. You may have read my previews of the beers on this site - I said then that I thought the range of beers was good with many award winners amongst them, and so it turned out to be.

It was inevitable that some beers would not make the festival but I think there was more added to the beer list than taken away.

I know that a couple were sold out by the Saturday evening - it seems that the organisers were taken aback as to how well the event was going in terms of beer sales.

I have also been told that the Cider ran out at one stage and emergency supplies were called for.

I was surprised by this as East Dorset CAMRA have run very successful festivals in Poole for a number of years and should be in a position to gauge how much beer and Cider is needed. Perhaps we were just extra thirsty that weekend!

So overall I thought it was a great venue, plenty of seating, friendly knowledgeable staff, good music and everyone seemed to be having a cracking time. So over to you. Did you go? If so what did you think of the event, the location etc and, most importantly, what beers did you try and which did you like and which left you flat?