ORGANISERS of the Wallingford Beer and Blues Festival hailed this year’s event a great success.

More than 1,000 beer lovers packed into the Regal Centre on Friday and Saturday to sample 14 different beers and listen to a host of different blues bands.

The independently run festival raises money for the promotion of live music in Wallingford and to help youth development projects in the area.

Organiser John Curry said: “We were packed almost to capacity on Friday and still had really good numbers on Saturday, even though it was very hot and humid.

“In recent years our reputation has grown and it was good to see so many people returning for another festival.”

Oxfordshire breweries were represented with beers from the White Horse, Ridgeway, Appleford, Hook Norton and Loddon breweries.

Wallingford School Fun Band, a finalist at the National Youth Festival in Birmingham last year, provided music on Saturday afternoon, playing a variety of modern rock music, jazz and music from the ’60s and ’80s.

Saturday evening was headlined by Connie Lush and Blues Shouter, while The Blues Band got top billing on Friday.

Mr Curry said: “The music was great.

“We have developed a good reputation whereby local people may not know who some of the bands are, but they know they will all be good fun.”

This year, proceeds will be split between the Footsteps Foundation, based in Warborough, and the Wallingford School Fun Band.

Organisers do not yet know how much they have raised, but last year’s festival made more than £2,000 for charity.