I'm Annoyed

And this time it's not to do with having read my Mum's Daily Mail (although I did sully myself on Saturday morning by doing just that, and had to have a shower when I got home). This time it's something much closer to my heart; beer. More specifically the Preston Beer Festival at St Walburges. I have spent the last three or four weeks trying to confirm the dates of this year's festival. I phoned the church on several occasions, not once getting an answer; I searched the internet regularly; I phoned the chairman of CAMRA West Lancs branch, a nice chap but he didn't know; and I enquired at local hostelries. Nobody could help me. Paula, the landlady of Bitter Suite, thought it may be this coming weekend (which would mean it once again clashed with the Wigan festival). I went on Google today to see if I could find out about it and discovered to my dismay that it had been last weekend! There was even a report in the Lancashire Evening Post about it.

This is the first Preston Festival I have missed for several years and having done my damnedest to find out about it I feel cheated at having missed it. How did the 700 people who turned up find out about it? Is there a secret mailing list I don't know about? According to the LEP article next year's festival is booked for 26-28 March 2009 so I must ensure that date is etched on my memory.

In the meantime I will content myself with drooling over the beer list for Wigan.