THIS weekend’s Chippenham Beer Festival saw a record attendance on the Saturday afternoon and more than 1,800 visitors overall.

The 24th annual festival had a new chairman, Alan Cross, taking over from long-standing Gareth MacDonald.

Mr Cross said: “We had 674 on the Friday night, 517 Saturday night and 625 in the day - that's a record attendance for the lunchtime. It was good weather."

With 92 beers on offer, no one managed to sample them all. But Hayden Rose, 21, of Queen’s Crescent, had a stab at it.

He said: “I’ve tried eight or nine and they’re all delicious. It’s exciting to be able to try so many different beers in one place.

“But the beers are almost secondary to the social aspect; you get talking to people, have you tried this one?”

In the break between sets from the 1950s/60s rock n roll band, a buzz of chatter moved around the Olympiad hall as people gave their beers to complete strangers to try. As The Bear Cats started up again and casks began to empty, the toe-tapping progressed to dancing.

Abi Newton, a festival committee member who is organising the Three Crowns' flash flock on May 10, said: “People have even come from Essex and Lincoln especially.

"We are recognised on the CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) circuit for our good range of beers. We look for a variety of styles and strengths and we try and support new local breweries.”

New for this year is Circuit bitter from Castle Combe brewery, which launched near Lyneham in August last year.

Dibber from Shed Ales at Pewsey was pronounced beer of the festival and Spring Surprise from Handmade Cider at Slaughterford was crowned top cider.

Also on the menu was last year’s Champion Beer – a bitter called Boltmaker from Timothy Taylor in Keighley, West Yorkshire.

She may have been wearing a blue rosette, but Conservative candidate Michelle Donelan prefers her beer green. Her favourite of the night was Stonehenge’s Sign of Spring, which she said was an “intriguing” colour.

The real cider was also popular, the only complaint being the choice of 22 ciders and seven perries wasn't enough.

Mark Henly, 27, of Park Lane, said: “The amount of people it brings in is great. I would like to see a bigger selection of cider.”

Real cider is sold locally in the Three Crowns and the Buttercross Inn in Chippenham, the Bell at Lacock and the Jolly Huntsman in Kington St Michael.

Donated unused beer tokens raised funds for St John Ambulance and Hardenhuish School’s Peru trip, after they designed the logo for this year’s glass.

The CAMRA festival also carried a political message, with its programme urging beer lovers to sign their petition to protect community pubs at http://ge2015.camra.org.uk/