The Great Yarmouth Beer and Cider Festival returns this week to St Georges Theatre for a four day celebration of real ale, ciders and live music.

With a choice of over 60 real ales and ciders the 10th annual Great Yarmouth Beer & Cider Festival promises something for everyone when it opens for its first session at 5pm on Thursday.

Festival sponsors and Yarmouth's own Lacons are amongst the Norfolk & Suffolk brewers represented at the festival which will also include ales from Adnams, Woodfordes, Humpty Dumpty, Panther, St. Peters and S&P.

Festival co-organiser and Beer Sommelier Day Harvey has also selected ales from award winning brewers in other regions giving festival goers the chance to try something different with beers from Titanic (Staffordshire), Harveys (Sussex), Abbeydale and Pennine (Yorkshire), Black Hole and Burton Bridge (Burton upon Trent), Pheasantry (Nottinghamshire) and Boss of Swansea.

The beers will all be kept in perfect condition throughout the festival thanks to the storage and cooling system provided by Lacons.

Those favouring ciders will be spoilt for choice also with over twenty different varieties available to complement the array of real ales that will be on offer. From the better known ciders makers of Aspalls, Westons and Apple Jack to the smaller producers including Farmer Fear, Snails Bank and Bootleg a wide variety of apple, perry's and fruit ciders will be available from the very dry to the very sweet and everything in between.

The festival will be open for a number of lunch and evening sessions starting with the opening on Thursday, May 19, at 5pm, a lunch time (11.00am to 3.00pm) and evening (5.00pm to 11.00pm) session's on Friday and Saturday finishing with a lunch time session (11.00 to 3.00pm) on Sunday 22nd May.

As in previous years, live music will play an important part of the festival, making use of the excellent acoustics, stage and sound facilities provided by the Theatre and includes singer/songwriter Jude Garrod and 'Banjaxeld' on Friday night, acoustic soloist Sam Greig and Beatboxing singer 'Differential' performing Saturday lunchtime and acoustic duo 'Junk Shop Poets' and 'The Watchover' performing at the Saturday night session.

There will also be food and snacks available in the pavilion building next door along with a selection of alternative refreshments and, weather permitting, tables and chairs for festival goers to enjoy their food and beer outside.

Advance tickets for all sessions are available through the St. Georges Theatre booking office and Great Yarmouth Mercury readers can get £1.00 off advance tickets if they order them by Saturday May 14, by entering 'Mercury' when booking on line at www.stgeorgestheatre.com or by quoting the same code over the phone or in person to the box office on 01493 331484.