THIS year’s eagerly-awaited Worcester Beer, Cider & Perry Festival is under way, with a host of activities and ales on offer.

The Camra-run event, now in it’s ninth year, features beer, bands, cider and celebrities.

The festival opened at 5pm yesterday at Worcester Racecourse and over the next two days crowds will have a choice of 230 beers and 130 ciders and perries, some from Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire and others from Europe.

Organiser Bill Ottaway said there were about 270 casks ranging from nine gallons to 18, to make sure the festival does not run out of anything.

James May, co-presenter of Top Gear, is scheduled to attend the festival today with Oz Clarke of Oz and James’s Big Wine Adventure, to film a new series of the show.

Film crews from the BBC will be at the festival between 10am and 2pm today but Mr Ottaway said he did not know when May and Clarke would be making their entrance.

If it rains during the weekend revellers can take shelter in a 3,500 square metre (11,482sq ft) marquee.

Mr Ottaway said: “We don’t want to run out but we don’t want a lot left at the end. We had about 70 barrels left last time.”

Last year’s festival was cancelled because of the summer floods and although Mr Ottaway said he was anxious when it rained, he was determined the event should be held on the Pitchcroft.

He said: “This is a Worcester festival – where else but in the centre can we get an event as big as ours?

“If it was done anywhere else we would have to reduce the size of the festival and that would be bad for the city.”

Mr Ottaway said one of his concerns was the state of the ground at the racecourse, which ranges from hard to very soft.

Plastic sheets have been placed on the softer ground to firm it out but Mr Ottaway has advised festival-goers not to arrive in high-heels.