OREANDA-NEWS. On 04 August 2008 was announced, that in the city of Dalian, China the 10th Dalian Beer Festival closed. This year more than a million beer lovers visited the festival. Baltika Breweries, which has become a traditional participant of the beer festival in Dalian, attracted more than 20,000 visitors to its huge tent (1,200 sq.m.). The guests were able to enjoy not only the taste of Baltika beer but also a rich programme of entertainment. The Dalian Folk Chorus of Russian Songs, which is well known in China, as well as contemporary Chinese performers enlivened the Company’s space at the fair.

Fresh sea air, astonishing Nature, numerous seafood restaurants and the possibility to sample more than 300 varieties of beer attract Chinese tourists from the whole country to Dalian. In the course of several years, the Dalian festival has become the second largest beer event in China.

The holding of the Olympic Games in Beijing introduced some changes in the life of the festival: on 19 July the Olympic flame passed through here. For security reasons, the festival shut down for one day.

Konstantin Sabelnikov, Sales Manager, China and Southeast Asia of Baltika Breweries: ‘Notwithstanding the one-day interruption, we consider the Company’s participation to have been successful. We improved our results compared to last year both in terms of the number of visitors and in the volume of beer sold. This year our guests drank more than 12,000 litres of Baltika beer. The most popular varieties were Baltika №3 Classic, Baltika №5 Gold and Baltika №6 Porter. On the eve of the Olympics, travel within China is restricted. Therefore everyone accepted with understanding the halt in the beer festival for the time when the Olympic torch passed through here. People are trying to avoid unnecessary travel. For that reason this year the visitors were mostly from Dalian itself. Nevertheless, the Baltika tent enjoyed great popularity.’ China tops the list of the five main beer markets in the world. At present Baltika is the only Russian company making shipments of beer to China. The name of the Baltika brand sounds like ‘Bolodikhai Pitszyu,’ which may be translated as Baltic Sea Beer.