Light Waves Leisure Centre - Photo by David Owen.
The stillage is in position and beers on the upper rows (to be dispensed by gravity) are here being tapped by bar manager John Groves (left) assisted by member David Lamb.
Bar manager John Groves is about to insert a hard or soft spile (depends how lively the beer is, whether there is still excess carbon dioxide to be released) into the vent of a plastic cask.
In this picture can be seen the cooling saddles that keep the beers at Wakefield Festival in good condition. They are kept insulated by those grey fleeces which have to be laundered at St Albans after each outing.
Bar manager John Groves has a spile in his hand ready to insert in the vent on the top of the cask.
Tap the spile in gently but not too far as it is going to be necessary to remove it when the time comes to draw off beer.
Assistant bar manager Dave Martin chocks casks to keep them stable and at the correct tilt. Notice his long black dipstick.
Caustic fluids used to clean lines and taps need protective gear. Modelling the full outfit is a very happy Peter O'Toole. Photo by David Owen.
Assistant Bar Manager Peter O'Toole proudly models the protective clothing which is obligatory when working with caustic cleaning fluids. Photo by David Owen.
Photo by David Owen.
Brothers John (left) and Dave Hoult (right) are discussing marking the barrel end labels with code letters to indicate how dark a beer is.
Bar Manager Dave Hoult is about to put up the barrel end label for Slaughterhouse Wild Boar. The yellow pads are hook and loop fastening.
Robert Frudd (left) assisted by Alan Shaw, strengthens the bars to be used for world beers.
Bar Manager Steve Walmsley has a lot of beers which at this stage have no pump clips. This looks like an emergency job for Bob Wallis with Paint Shop Pro and a laminator. Funnily enough, some years these faked-up pumpclips get purloined by collectors!
Just some of the extra bits and bats that you need when turning a sports hall into the biggest pub in Wakefield: it's all going to need a big wash-up in the week after the festival before it can be put away until next time.
The tombola's nearly ready.
Staffing Officer Pat Wallis (left) and Organiser June Bradbury (right) ensure that every worker's identity badge is ready.
Bar Manager Jon Chapman inserts the tap into a nice metal cask in the time-honoured way.
Bar Manager Jon Chapman taps a beer from the Fox Brewery which is in an outbuilding of the Fox & Hounds pub at Heacham near Hunstanton in North Norfolk.
Meanwhile those carpenters carry on refurbishing one of our spare bars which has had to be brought into service due to the unforeseen demise of a bar we've borrowed from H B Clark many times before.
You can spot a true skilled tradesman by the way he hold his pencil.
Each beer on the bar needs checking for taste and appearance. If it's not right and it doesn't come into condition in time, it goes back. The master taster isSteve Walmsley>
Let's face it, we've had some of these taps since the beginning, and quite honestly they're ****ered, says bBar Manager John Groves to Quartermaster Albert Bradbury.
Brian Cavell, whom you have probably seen working at scores of beer festivals across the county - we keep getting told that he's going to retire, but how many times was Frank Sinatra going to do the same?
Festival Publicity Officer was interviewed at the featival for Ridings FM and also nipped along to Real Radio' studios at Tingley on the Thursday afternoon for an interview which went out as the "and finally" on news bulletins on the Saturday morning. It was good to meet the gang fom Real Radio again when they turned up in force as festivalgoers. Ian White from BBC Look North paid us a visit on the Saturday evening, and it wasn't the lure of free tickets - he's a great cask ale fan.
Aren't they gorgeous? It's no wonder we get so many phone calls asking for extra ones.
lovely!
Wakefield Mayor Heather Hudson has won an Elland Brewery pumpclip on the tombola, which was raising money for the mayoral charities - the Rugby League Benevolent Fund and the Special Care Baby Unit at Pontefract Infirmary.
Mayor of Wakefield Heather Hudson meets the cider team, lefte David Litten, centre Cider Bar Manager Richard Norris and right Festival Treasurer/Branch Chairman Mark Goodair.
Festival Organiser June Bradbury, in black t-shirt with her back to camera, takes Mayor of Wakefield Heather Hudson and her chauffeur on a guided tour.
Maureen Waller and her assistant Derek Waller (no, not Fanny and Johnny Craddock) greet the Mayor. Their food stall raised lots of money for Childrennin Need and got at least two mentions on air from Terry Wogan!
Derek looks to be getting ready to curtsey to the Mayor.
Thursday night saw the visit of a number of leading beer experts. They know their stuff, so their opinions matter and they have tasted many thousands of brews.
This is bread and beef dripping but the dripping has to have plenty of brown bits in it. Visiting Southerners were most taken with it.
Once the punters have come through the doors and obtained/shown entrance tickets or CAMRA membership cards, they need to buy beer tokens from Richard Horrocks (left) or Mike Abba (right). Richard also reminds folk to fill in their beer of the festival slips before they go home. Photo by David Owen.
Little Sue Nichol is a mental nurse during the week.
Paul Travis brings his Beer Inn Print stand to leading festivals across the North. You can also visit Paul on-line at http://beerinnprint.co.uk/
http://beerinnprint.co.uk/ is run by Paul Travis from Hebden Bridge.
Geoff Williams from the Pudsey sub-branch makes an appearance behind the bar at most CAMRA festival across the County. The pumpclip for Uncle Stuart's Local Hero is one of those emergency specials.
John Hoult (grinning) and Steve Walmsley (serene)
Great Heck Superdave is a souped-up version of Dave which won Festivalgoers' Choice at last year's festival. Riwaka Beata from Foxfield featured two unusual aromatic hops from New Zealand.
John Bell
