THOUSANDS of pints of real ale will be downed this weekend at the annual Oxford Beer Festival.

Drinkers are already sampling more than 140 beers and ciders from around the world at the three-day event, which started yesterday and runs until Saturday evening.

The festival comes after months of appeals by organisers Oxford Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) for people to show local pubs more support or risk losing them.

Oxford Camra vice chairman Matt Bullock said: “We’re already delighted with how it’s going, and expect it to carry on getting busier. There is a real resurgence in real ale at the moment, with breweries springing up across the country. Oxfordshire has some excellent beers.”

Local breweries Old Bog, Hook Norton, Brakspear, Wychwood, Pitstop, Adkin and Loddon have all supplied ales.

Old Bog Brewery owner Chris Meeson said: “The festival is a great event and it is nice for us to show people there is still brewing in Oxford.”

The festival is open until 11pm tonight and between 11am and 8pm tomorrow.