Hers was one of many rather striking and curious choices of costume to be seen at the festival on Saturday, including a crew wearing genuine Mexican sombreros, a man whose dress seemed to be made of a Bavarian man wearing lederhosen supporting him; more people wearing lederhosen; an array of hats that doubled as umbrellas, and yet more lederhosen. (Someone, somewhere is making a fortune selling leather shorts and braces.)

Sarah De Bont says it’s the fifth year she’s worn the beersuit to the festival, and it’s rather warm inside.

“It is a scorcher inside this,” she says.

“There’s sheep’s wool as the froth. It has had a couple of washes, thankfully. It’s not meant for summer days.”

Jade Griffin of Tempted Promotions says the festival is the first outing for her new Ballarat venture.

She says the first part of her job was to hand out flyers and t-shirts at various other events in Ballarat such as Springfest and the cycling championships, alerting people to the upcoming beer festival.

“Today we’re just wandering around, looking good, jumping into photos with all the patrons, encouraging everyone to have a good time and looking out for those who aren’t,” said Ms Griffin.

But there’s a more serious side to promotions, with Ms Griffin saying her next job will be a fundraiser for Survivors of Suicide (SOS).

“A lot of it is connections – people we know – but we are really focussing on Ballarat and community events at the moment.”

Carlie Isherwood and her partner Josh Lind flew down from Newcastle in NSW especially to attend the festival after being told about it by friends in Ballarat.

“It was a must-do,” said Ms Isherwood.

“There’s a great selection of beers and cider. I don’t actually drink a lot of beer, but today… there’s mango beer, strawberry beer… beautiful.”

Eathan Rodgers was the “Face of the Ballarat Beer Festival” last year – a story which The Courier had trouble substantiating, but which was taken on – face – value.

“They took a photo of me from the previous year; I might have been a little bit blind,” said Mr Rodgers.

Mr Rodgers and his mates said preparing for the festival is a bit of a ritual involving breakfast with a fellow apparently named ‘Captain Morgan’.

Nevertheless, the group were volubly certain of making it through the day unscathed.

“We’ve made it past a few tents, we’ve probably got 25 or 30 more to go,” said Mr Rodgers.

Ballarat Police said there were no reports of arrests or disturbances concerning or following the beer festival.