BEER festivals don't come much more perfectly formed than the one at the Blue Bell in York.

The Fossgate boozer will be stopping the traffic as the inside-out jamboree takes to the streets for the third time next weekend.

Fossgate itself will be closed a week tomorrow as the ale extravaganza spills out of the tiny pub and on to the road, with the autumn weather kept at bay by a gazebo and patio heaters. The festival continues the following day, Monday, November 10, inside the pub only.

Landlord Jim Hardie and the Blue Bell poss will be "smallin' it" with 30 different ales on sale. Seven are on the bar, the rest racked up in the back room.

For Jim this is a logistical nightmare. How can he cram all the kegs into his tiny cellar before they are ready to go up on the scaffold? Only Jim, the David Blaine of the licensed trade, knows the magic secret.

Britain's smallest barman Graham Hughes, 3ft 11ins tall, is adding his own unique perspective to proceedings again. Among other ales, he will be serving up Snow White, from the Castle Rock Brewery, Nottingham.

Naturally this has given rise to a Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs theme. Only the Blue Bell has gone one better, with Graham starring as the eighth dwarf. You know Doc, Bashful, Grumpy, Sneezy, Happy, Sleepy and Dopey. Now meet... Boozy.

As you would expect from the reigning Morning Advertiser Fundraising Pub Of The Year, the Blue Bell beer festival is all for charity. Jim is hoping they can match the £1,000 they raised last year for Yorkshire Cancer Research.

He wants to thank two York pubs, the Golden Ball and the Bay Horse on Blossom Street, for their support. And he is appealing for more tombola prizes: if you can donate something, please take it to the pub or give him a ring on (01940) 654904.

Meanwhile, the pub has received two cheques from movie superstar Paul Newman, just as promised. The £1,500 will be shared between the two charities supported by the pub's Ales Angel sponsored cycle ride, Martin House Hospice and Lidgett Grove School.

IF you can't wait until next weekend for a beer festival, get along to York's two Wetherspoon's pubs.

Both the Postern Gate in Piccadilly and the Punch Bowl, Blossom Street, are hosting real ale celebrations that run until tomorrow.

Each has 13 new brews to sample, including the Campaign For Real Ale's Champion Beer of Britain, Harviestoun's Bitter & Twisted.

The silver and bronze winners, Harrogate's own Daleside Bitter and Alton's Pride from Triple FFF respectively, are also available.

Other most quaffable pints include Jennings' Cocker Hoop, Exmoor Beast, Tring Colley's Dog, Hop Back Thunderstorm, Bishop's Finger from Shepherd Neame and RCH Pitchfork. All have received awards.

ONE of North Yorkshire's most atmospheric pubs is basking in the national spotlight.

Blind Jack's in Knaresborough was chosen for the full-page My Local feature in this month's edition of CAMRA newspaper What's Brewing.

Named after the famous blind road builder of the 18th century, it has "all the feel of a bygone era", writes Bob Stukins. "Yet it was created just over a decade ago by local businessman and CAMRA stalwart Ian Fozard."

It is now owned by another beer-cherishing landlord, Ralph Wilkinson. He "also trades as The Village Brewer, whose beers are expertly contract-brewed to his recipes by Hambleton of Holme-on-Swale near Thirsk".

Mr Stukins hands out praise to the couple who run Blind Jack's, Paul and Debbie Holden-Ridgway.

They run the pub with "flair and attention to detail," he writes, and "like to make people welcome - they listen to their customers, and don't just treat them as a source of revenue".

Add to that lots of great beers on the nine handpumps, and there is every reason to see your way to Blind Jack's.

Updated: 16:45 Friday, October 31, 2003