ORGANISERS of the record breaking Dorchester Beerex festival have raised a glass to all those that supported the event.

The sell-out event raised well in excess of £10,000 for charity, achieving its highest ever fundraising total.

Around 1,300 people attended the event, which was organised by the Dorchester Round Table and West Dorset Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), over the two days and were able to sample 85 ales and 15 perries and ciders from around the country.

Beerex chairman Ellis Ford said the committee were absolutely delighted with how the event had gone.

He said: “We were very pleased with how it all went.

“We had punters from all over the south west of England, we even had somebody from the Isle of Man and somebody from Yorkshire.”

Mr Ford added: “We would like to thank all the sponsors for sponsoring every barrel and our main sponsor Piddle Brewery.

“I would also like to personally say a big thank you to the whole committee for all their hard work.”

The event saw beer drinkers pack out the town’s Corn Exchange for all four sessions, with the Saturday night crowd able to enjoy music from the Skimmity Hitchers.

Mr Ford said: “People certainly stayed longer than usual, people loved the Skimmity Hitchers and stayed right to the end of the session.”

Beerex has been running in the county town since 1988 and has raised more than £100,000 for local good causes over the years.

This year the festival raised funds for hospital charity Gully’s Place.

The charity looks after terminally ill Dorset children and their families and currently has a unit at Poole Hospital but also wants to raise enough funds to open another facility at Dorset County Hospital in the near future.

Mr Ford said Gully’s Place had been the most ‘hands on’ charity the committee had ever worked with and praised them for their contribution to the event.

He said: “We would like to thank them for coming along and being so proactive and taking part in the festival.”

A raffle was also held to raise funds for the Round Table Children’s Wish and Mr Ford thanked all those that donated as they helped to raise over £1,500.

He also praised the hard work of the team from Dorchester Ellipse who provided food at the event.