MORE than 3,000 people visited Bromsgrove Rugby Club over the weekend for Bromsgrove Beer Festival’s biggest year yet.

Record numbers of visitors drank nearly 10,000 pints of beer, leaving the club with just 400 pints at the end of the weekend.

This year’s pirate-themed event welcomed dozens of guests in fancy dress and offered a selection of nautical ales among the 144 types of beer available.

Communications officer for Redditch and Bromsgrove CAMRA, which runs the festival, said: “We decided on the pirate theme because the very first female pirate apparently came from Bromsgrove 200 years ago.

“People dressed up and drank pirate-themed ales and Blackwell Concert Band started off with some pirate-themed music – it all went really well.”

It was a mostly dry weekend for festival-goers, apart from a few showers on Friday, which left visitors crammed into the marquee to wait out the rain.

But live music kept spirits high, provided by local bands including Nite Train and Dog named Steve, and young solo artists from Bromsgrove High School.

The Rock N Roll Instant Calmer was voted the tastiest beer, while it was a draw for the best cider award, which went to Butford Organics Perry, Gwynty Draig Black Dragon, Headless Cross Community Orchard Cider, Snailsbank Pig Ginger and Thistly Cross Whisky Cask.

Visitors raised more than £450 in unused beer tokens for Macmillan Cancer Support, all of which will be donated directly to the Bromsgrove branch.