YORKSHIRE’S biggest beer garden is now officially open in York.

The four-day York Beer and Cider Festival got underway today, with hundreds of beers and ciders on offer along the 250-feet bar, as well as wines, meads and gin.

Traders gathered at the Knavesmire pop-up venue in the afternoon before it opened to the public in time for the evening.

Festival spokesman Nick Love said: “People come to the beer festival to have a good time and get away from it all. It is a great atmosphere.”

With good weather predicted, he has high hopes for attendance figures. “Last year was very different. On the Thursday and Friday there was biblical rain. It hit numbers really badly though it recovered on Saturday. Looking at the forecast, we are very pleased that there’s good weather. We have Yorkshire’s biggest beer garden, Knavesmire, and people sitting out under the stars.”

An hourly return Pullman Bus Service 198 will operate throughout the day from opposite York Station to the festival from 11.30am.

Tony Rogers & Half Moon Brewery scooped Gold in the festival’s LocAle Awards, with their Olde Skool, a whisky-aged dark beer.