A BEER festival offering a vast array of tipples is set to begin in south Cumbria this Friday.

The festival will see a collection of 50 beers, ciders and lagers available at a newly-created events space in the town.

“We have got brewers from Scotland, we have got brewers from down south,” said Richard Husbands, director and owner of Bowness Bay Brewing, which has organised the event.

“It’s not just local beers.

“We are a brewer, we want to support other brewers.

“There’s some cracking brewers out there.

“We wanted to bring something a bit different.”

The festival is taking place at the ‘Venue’, a new indoor events space set up at Castle Mills off Aynam Road in Kendal.

It is on the same yard as The Barrel House pub, also owned by Bowness Bay Brewing.

The festival will be one of the first events to take place at the new site.

“We have got a permanent bar that we are utilising in there anyway,” said Mr Husbands, 51.

“We have got temporary bars set up to create a beer festival area.”

Food from the Fells will be catering the event, offering chips, burgers, nachos and more from 4pm until 9pm on Friday and Saturday and from mid-afternoon onwards on the Sunday, the final day of the festival.

Mr Husbands said he had worked with Sandy Williamson, of the Carlisle Beer Festival, and Phil Walker, landlord of The New Union in Kendal, to ‘get the beers in’.

He said the organising team had some beer in reserve but ‘once it’s gone, it’s gone’ so it was a good idea to ‘get in there early’.

The festival is taking place between midday and 11pm this Friday, between midday and 11pm on Saturday, and between 2pm and 9pm on Sunday. Entry to the Venue is free and people are asked simply to turn up.