ONE of the city’s biggest drinking events is to return to Southampton this summer.

Southampton Beer Festival will be returning on June 7-8 at St Mary’s Stadium to showcase ale, beer and cider to fans from across Hampshire.

The festival will have up to 75 cask ales, featuring a range of quality traditional brews, new and exciting craft ales, Brewery collaborations, and one off specials.

This vast range of beer will also be matched by a range of international bottled beer, real ciders and perry, a craft keg bar and new to the festival, a selection of popular gins – something to inspire and appeal to all tastes.

A number of Hampshire pubs and breweries will also be involved including; Bitter Virtue, Southampton; The Guide Dog, Southampton; Cask and Corks, Southampton; Caskaway, Southampton; Olaf’s Tun, Woolston; and Steam Town Brew Co, Eastleigh.

The two-day event, run by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), will this year have a change of opening hours and be open from 11.30am to 7.30pm on Saturday and 11.30am to 4pm on Friday with an additional Friday evening session running from 6.30pm to 11pm.

The layout of the festival will also incorporate the newly-refurbished Gasworks suite as a second festival room with its popular outside beer garden to allow the enjoyment of drinks while catching the summer sun; and plenty of comfortable seating in a spacious layout.

Based on customer feedback, a new food menu will be introduced including a pulled-pork bap, Thai curry and a gourmet burger.