Bar Talk's Guzzling Greenwood shakes off his hangover to report on the York Beer Festival.

THE sun shone, people gathered and many pints were drunk at the 2003 York Beer Festival - proof positive that the annual festival has been sorely missed.

The Evening Press-sponsored event returned to the city after a one-year absence at the unlikely venue of the Priory Street Centre, a time gap which felt much longer to many beer fans.

Thankfully, organisers at CAMRA have already said they hope the beery success story can be repeated on the same soil in 2004.

Despite an unhappy train strike that put off dozens of long-distance ale adventurers from other CAMRA branches, almost 1,500 drinkers made it to Micklegate to sup their share.

The Lord Mayor of York, Coun David Horton, put his seal of approval to the festival, and took on a fair share of the tasting duties himself.

The Three-legged Mare regular said he was avoiding some of the more "imaginatively named" beers and sticking to brews weighing in at about four per cent ABV.

Sage advice at a festival that boasted brews such as Hair of the Hog, Side Pocket for a Toad and, memorably, Ratae Arsed from those wags at the Port Mahon brewery in Sheffield.

Beers were racked along the walls in alphabetical order, but Bar Talk resisted the temptation to work from Abbey Bells to York Brewery, taking in a bladder-busting 90 beers!

Richard Parker, who worked round the clock to set up and maintain the beer, said: "We all enjoyed it immensely, although it was probably only the workers who were happy when it was over!"

Festival organiser Stuart Barkworth said a quick look around the festival should have convinced any visitor that the CAMRA stereotype of beard, beer belly and sandals is dead and buried.

But the barn-storming event proved in great beer-sipping style that British brewing is very much alive and kicking.

Updated: 09:32 Saturday, April 05, 2003