Hundreds turn out for beer festival comeback

Derby Heritage Beer Festival returned to the city for the first time since 2020

Hundreds of people turned out for the return of a Derby beer festival, four years after the event was last held.

More than 300 people attended the opening night of Derby Heritage Beer Festival on Wednesday, which was hosted at the city's Museum of Making.

The three day festival offers more than 200 beers, real ales, ciders and perries from across the world to try, whilst "championing the very best from Derbyshire".

On the return, Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) publicity officer Heather Knibbs, 33, said: "We are so excited to be back and only being one day in, people have already told us how happy they are to see us back in the city."

People queued up outside the Museum of Making on Wednesday's opening night

Covid lockdowns and a shortage of affordable venues led to CAMRA's Derby branch being unable to put on its traditional festival since February 2020.

Ms Knibbs said finding a new venue for the festival has been "four years in the making".

"We needed to find a venue large enough to hold our crowds and we needed a place that was financially sustainable for us," she added.

Ms Knibbs added working with Derby Museums has been "mutually beneficial" after museum bosses made the ground-floor space available with no hiring fee and agreed to split the profits afterwards.

"We would very much like this to be our home going forward," she said.

"Working with the museum staff has been amazing and hopefully it will be a partnership that continues in the future.

"It's been great to see people having so much fun and has been worth the wait."