BEER lovers were in seventh heaven at the weekend, thanks to the Horwich Beer Festival.

The festival — organised by the Horwich Rotary club — kicked off on Thursday night, with guests able to sample from a heady range of more than 40 ales, lagers and ciders.

This is the second year that the event was held at the Horwich RMI club and the organisers are hoping to have raised an impressive £10,000 over the weekend.

It is the 14th year that Horwich Rotary Club has staged the festival and money raised will be given to good causes.

These include funding for the development of the talents of young people, events for older people and the annual day trip to London for between 30 and 40 schoolchildren.

The festival took 10 months to plan and club president, Ted Wisedale, said it had been a huge success.

He added: “It went very well and there was a really good atmosphere.

“Last year was excellent and we think this year went even better.

“It was hard work — particularly in the last week with things like assembling the bar — but it was certainly been worth it.”

Mr Wisedale, aged 69, from Westhoughton, said that after all the hard work he and his fellow Rotarians were able to enjoy some of the ales on offer.

He added: “My favourite beer was the Allgates Pretoria, which is a beer dedicated to the coal mine disaster in Westhoughton in 1910 where 344 miners lost their lives.”