Cornish beer at Celtic festival

September 20, 2007: Lowender Peran, Cornwall's biggest Celtic festival, has signed up Skinner's Brewery, of Truro, as official beer supplier.

The festival, from October 17 to 21, will receive 15p from every pint of top-selling Betty Stogs bitter sold at the five-day event at the Ponsmere Hotel, Perranporth. Betty Stogs ale made it into the final eight of the best bitter category of this year's Champion Beer of Great Britain competition at the Campaign for Real Ale's Great British Beer Festival.

Skinners will also be supplying its popular Cornish lager and Pressgang cider, and there will be a new dedicated Skinner's bar in the hotel dining room.

"In line with our ongoing growth, we are anxious to further develop our involvement in the Cornish community and we are delighted to be able to help promote the enjoyment and preservation of Cornish folk arts," said brewery managing director Steve Skinner.

Now in its 29th year, Lowender Peran will feature performers from Cornwall, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany and the Isle of Man. The festival will be packed with concerts, ceilidhs, workshops, storytelling sessions and a Celtic craft market.

"Skinner's support is doubly appropriate," said festival organiser Jojo Davey. "With government funding for the arts beginning to decline, the festival has become increasingly reliant on meeting running costs through methods other than simply statutory support and ticket sales.

"A recent audience survey found that many people wanted to see more real ale, in particular Cornish ale, on sale at the festival."