TIME at the CAMRA beer festival was called 24 hours early on Saturday night when it was announced that the ale had run out.

Islanders and visitors drank their way through 15,000 pints of beer and cider in just three days – and at 9 pm on Saturday, as local band Wet Wet Le Geyt finished up their set, the last keg was drained and the crowd were told that they had drunk the marquee dry.

And Islanders were obviously showing some regional patriotism – of 140 different beers and ciders, the last to sell out was the ale from across the water, Guernsey Sunbeam.

‘It just got drunk.

It was amazing,’ said Jon Le Sueur, chairman of the local branch of CAMRA.

‘Last year was a sell-out, but this year the turn-out was unprecedented.’ Around 4,500 people attended the event over three days, up from 3,800 on last year’s four-day festival – and stunning weekend weather saw 1,700 people turning out on Friday alone.