AROUND 12,500 beer, cider and perry lovers from across Britain and even abroad are expected to descend on Worcester next week to enjoy any of the 300 or so tipples on offer at the annual drinks festival.

With more than 170 real ales on tap, more than 100 draught ciders and perries, as well nearly 20 fruit wines and a handful of grape wines, entertainment and food, there should be something for everyone at the 16th Worcester Beer, Cider and Perry Festival.

The event is run by the Worcester branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and, apart from volunteers from the branch and Worcester city itself, it attracts helpers from all over the country too.

Organiser Steve Chase said: “This year, fewer than half the volunteers are CAMRA members. The others might be members of the public living in Worcester or people from out of the area who have come along to the festival and had such a great time that they decide they wanted to volunteer for the next one.

“One of our volunteers comes from Scotland every year and we have also had people from Kent and Lancashire.

“We’ll have about 160 volunteers this year – some might do a few hours one day and others will help out all three days.” The festival, staged on Worcester Racecourse at Pitchcroft, starts at 5pm on Thursday August 6 and finishes at 10pm on Saturday August 9.

Steve stressed it is vital for anyone attending to get their tickets in advance because the number who enter are limited and tickets are going fast. “There are plenty left for Thursday and Saturday but the Friday tickets are in short supply now.”

In previous years visitors have come from as far away as Japan and the US to attend the festival.

The beers are ordered by Worcester CAMERA member Andy Wood from about 25 wholesalers and they also come from all over Britain – the Orkneys and Inverness, Pembroke to Lincolnshire, Cornwall to East Sussex and everywhere in between. And Worcester features strongly in the beers, ciders and perries, of course.

And there’s something for every beer drinkers taste from a Suffolk golden ale with a light fragrance, lovely malty flavours and a long hoppy finish with a hint of caramel and toffee to a citrus hopped cloudy wheat beer infused with Kafir lime leaves made in North Yorkshire.

Steve said they expect about 2,500 people to turn up on Thursday for the 5pm to 11pm first day when entertainment will include female vocal duo Daddies Girls singing a range of cover versions from across the decades. Twenty two year old landlady Laura Mcphee will be singing some of her favourites while foot stomping folk and country band The Haunted Souls will take top billing.

He said Friday tend to attack young people to the festival and they expect about 5,500 to turn up while Saturday is more of a family day and many people come in and bring a picnic.

Food from Mexican to fish and chips from Evesham’s StarChip Enterprise, pies and curries can be bought from catering outlets at the festival or people can bring in their own food.

For a full list of what’s on at Worcester Beer, Cider and Perry Festival 2015 visit http://worcesterbeerfest.org.uk/

Steve said they are already thinking about next year and rather than trying to get any bigger, they are looking at ways to make the festival better and an even more enjoyable experience for visitors.

“I think a choice of 170 beers is enough for anyone and while I think there is demand from the public for it to be bigger the risk is that there will be queues and overcrowding. We are at about at our limit for the number of volunteers we can get. Our aim is to make it even nicer for the people who come along next year.”