DRINKERS are racing to the bar to snap up tickets for a popular beer festival.

More than half the tickets have already been sold for the Campaign for Real Ale’s Weymouth autumn beer festival on Friday, October 16 and Saturday, October 17. The Saturday lunchtime session is already two thirds sold.

The venue is again the Pavilion Ocean Room,, much praised by festivalgoers in the four previous years and identified by organisers as a key part of the event’s success.

More than 70 different barrels of real ale from across the South West will be featured, a total of 5,040 pints of beer. There will also be around a dozen ciders and perries.

The Dorset Brewing Company at Crossways will have its own bar to commemorate its 20th anniversary with six of its own beers and last year’s Beer of the Festival winners Cerne Abbas Brewery will bring two ales.

“This year we are going back to how it all started, with a West Country selection, featuring breweries from Bristol to Penzance,” says CAMRA Bar Manager Rich Gabe.

“There will be a choice of old favourites and new breweries never seen before in Weymouth and a diverse range of beer styles, including several firsts at the festival.”

West Dorset CAMRA’s October beer festival was held for eight years at Brewers Quay, until closure of the Hope Square attraction in early 2011 forced a move.

There will again be live music on Saturday evening courtesy of Martin Johnson, a blues style band.

The festival runs over four sessions, 11am to 3.30pm and 6pm to 11.30pm. Tickets cost £5 for Friday evening and both Saturday sessions and £4 Friday lunchtime.

Buy them at at camrawdorset.org.uk the Pavilion box office or from The Boot, The Globe Inn, Wyke Smugglers and Chalbury Food & Wine in Weymouth, the Blue Raddle at Dorchester or The Royal Portland Arms and The George on Portland.