OTLEY Beer Festival will be held this autumn despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

While many of the town’s - and country’s - other events, up until Christmas and beyond, have been cancelled the festival organisers have adapted to ensure they can carry on.

The fundraising event is usually held at Otley Rugby Club each November and supports Otley Parish Church plus a variety of charities and community groups.

This time, however, circumstances have forced Otley RATS to pursue a different ‘moveable feast’ format dubbed Otley Beer Festival On Tour.

That will see the fun spread around Otley with many of the town’s pubs and bars set to host a barrel.

Festival Chair Jeff Utley MBE said: “With the lockdown and the current situation it has been a grim year for the town, its pubs and charities in general.

“With the fantastic support we have received from Otley’s licensees we will be able to make a contribution, however small, to all three.

“We wanted to put something back into the town’s community, help our struggling pubs with perhaps an increasing footfall, raise some money for our designated charities and assure our loyal customers that the Otley Beer Festival will continue despite the Covid pandemic.”

A ‘trial run’ for the festival began at The Royalty, on Otley Chevin, on Friday, September 18.

It is set to last ‘until the beer runs out’.

The festival proper, meanwhile, will start up in the town centre on Friday, November 13 and run until Sunday, November 22 - subject to COVID-19 restrictions at the time.

The participating pubs and bars will display an Otley Beer Festival on Tour poster and the charity beer will also display an OBF pump clip.

Otley Town Council Chair Councillor Richard Hughes said he was delighted to hear that one of the town’s big annual events would be continuing in a year that has been blighted with cancellations.

He said: “In these difficult times it is good to hear that the Otley Beer Festival has found a way to do the things it does best: introduce some great beers to Otley drinkers and raise money for charity.

“The ‘Beer Festival On Tour’ is an excellent idea.”

Otley Pub Club President Greg Mulholland has also welcomed the ‘on tour’ idea.

He said: “It is fantastic that Otley RATS are this year organising ‘Otley Beer Festival on Tour’ in Otley’s famous pubs.

“It’s an ingenious way of still managing to have a festival and Otley Pub Club are delighted to support it.

“We hope that people will take part and support the festival and Otley’s pubs and, by doing so, will once again help important local charities.”

All proceeds from the sale of the festival beers will this year be donated to the Alzheimer’s Society and the NSPCC. The 2019 festival raised £7,000, taking the total that the event has raised for good causes so far to £105,600.