It was, admits brewery boss Martin Brunnschweiler, the worst kept secret around.

Bushy’s has announced the new location for its TT beer tent next year will be the Villa Marina Gardens.

It described the move, which is subject to a favourable licensing court decision, as a ’golden opportunity’.

Bushy’s said it has secured the Villa Marina Gardens site after a ’frenetic period of site recce and lengthy discussions’ and ’careful consideration of several potential sites around the capital’.

Mr Brunnschweiler said: ’We needed to make sure all the Ts were crossed and Is dotted before we made the announcement. A lot of work has been involved behind the scenes in putting this together.

’The next step is to go for licensing court approval - we must not take anything for granted.’

Douglas Council announced in July that after 20 years Bushy’s would not run the TT beer tent at the Bottleneck car park next year and the contract for the next five years had instead been awarded to the Hooded Ram.

At the time, Mr Brunnschweiler said he was disappointed at that decision but had been looking at four alternative sites since before the TT.

He said the new site has a lot of benefits over the Bottleneck, with triple the capacity and none of the constraints associated with the old tapered site. ’We had a lot of affection for the Bottleneck, it was where we cut our teeth. But we had outgrown it really.’

The Bushy’s boss said two nearby car parks and the town square had been considered as alternatives but the Villa Marina Gardens stood out.

He said the aim was to create a ’festival atmosphere’. Matting will be put down in bad weather.

Mr Brunnschweiler believes there is sufficient demand for two beer tents but added: ’Only time will tell. We’ve been in this situation before when there was a rival beer tent set up by the war memorial around the time of the centenary TT.

’There was plenty of business to go around at that time.’