The St Austell Brewery team, led by managing director, James Staughton, behind a bar at the Celtic Beer Festival 2016
St Austell Brewery’s hugely popular Celtic Beer Festival has broken records yet again, raising a massive £40,000 for charity from the 2016 event in November, with more beer lovers attending than ever before.
The annual festival raises money for St Austell Brewery’s Charitable Trust, which supports good causes across the South West. Thanks to nearly 3,500 people attending in 2016, the trust is also able to celebrate another landmark of generating more than £600,000 for local charities since it was started in 2003.
Despite the many different fundraising activities that take place across the year, including golf days, sportsmans’ dinners and pub quizzes across the brewery’s 178-strong estate, the Celtic Beer Festival continues to be the biggest event in the Charitable Trust’s calendar.
Attracting thousands of beer lovers who flock to the brewery’s historic cellars to enjoy a day-long celebration of real ale and local music, all of the profits from ticket sales are donated to the trust, with much of the liquid refreshment also donated to the event by the brewery and others in the brewing business.
Ian Blunt, chairman of the St Austell Brewery Charitable Trust, said: “This is another terrific achievement for the trust, made possible by the generosity of so many people, from those who come along to enjoy the event as well as those who help to sponsor it.
“The trust is designed to help people from all walks of life, as well as large organisations, and this year has been another typical example of that, with donations ranging from iPads and wheelchairs for youngsters with learning difficulties and disabilities, to £15,000 for essential ventilator equipment for the Cornwall Air Ambulance.”
Jeremy Mitchell, St Austell Brewery’s marketing and communications director, added: “The Celtic Beer Festival is an incredible success story that just keeps on growing and we are incredibly grateful to all those people who came and supported this year’s event and helped us to raise such an incredible amount.
“Here’s to CBF 2017 on November 25 raising even more money for the trust — get it in the diary!”
