Saturday 2 March 2013

On the home straight

We were drastically under-staffed by volunteers for the Saturday lunchtime shift, meaning all hands literally were to the pumps!  This curtailed my ability to update the beer list from 1pm until the session ended at 3pm, but I was all too aware that many beers were running out from what I could see with my own eyes.

Without resorting to stereotypes, the Saturday lunchtime crowd differs from the previous day's - where Friday has dedicated ale drinkers to the fore (consider the demographics - a good proportion of CAMRA's membership must be retired and therefore easily able to devote a weekday to quaffing quality ales!), Saturday has more of a party feel, as evidenced by the fancy dress and the novelty hats (sold from the ever-popular Smart-Ts stall in the Main Hall).  One of the possible consequences of this is that not every customer will realise that the whole festival is a volunteer enterprise - some can be quite demanding and question any poor service.  Whilst nobody likes waiting with an empty glass, sometimes a little understanding would go a long way...!

Anyhow, lunch turned out to be a truncated affair - I'm looking forward to a proper hot meal this evening with my staff meal voucher! - and the two hour break between sessions brought little respite either.  With the beer list needing updating, the only thing for it was to grab another programme and go around the bars updating by hand, then rushing to get the live beer list and beer change lists updated before the doors swung open again at 5pm.  Whilst we can't magic up any new beer, the best we can do is at least try and make the information as readily available to people.

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