North Devon Beer Festival
19-22 June 2008
The North Devon Beer Festival is held at the North Devon Leisure Centre in the town of Barnstaple, North Devon every year at the end of June. The 2008 Festival will be held for the benefit of Devon Air Ambulance Trust.
The Festival is host to breweries and suppliers who will provide in the region of 100 different ales, 25 ciders and a range of wines.
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North Devon Leisure Centre is located at:
Seven Brethren Bank
Barnstaple
North Devon
EX31 2AP
Tel: 01271 373361
Fax: 01271 373234
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For more details on the North Devon Beer Festival contact the festival organisers on 07807 049350 or visit the main festival website at www.northdevonbeerfestival.co.uk. If for any reason you are unable to contact the festival organisers, please contact the Leisure Centre direct.
British Beer Festivals
In the UK the Great British Beer Festival held annually in August in London is the largest and most famous beer festival in the UK, and is organised by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA). The "GBBF", as it is known, was founded in 1977 and was attended by over 66,000 people in 2006, and 350,000 pints of ale were consumed over the five days of the festival. The CAMRA National Winter Ales Festival, designed to showcase beer styles which may not be readily available when the main summer festival is held, takes place in January at various venues across the country. Other festivals in London, Nottingham, Peterborough, St Albans and Reading, Berkshire, to name a few, are both very large and offer an interesting and distinctive selection of British beers. The Farnham Beer Exhibition in Surrey, having been held every year since 1977 at the Farnham Maltings, is the longest-running beer festival to be held annually on a single site in the United Kingdom, and every year sells over 29,000 pints of real ale during its 3 day opening.
Festivals are often organised by CAMRA, by local pubs and occasionally by other groups. CAMRA festivals are run by volunteers under direction of the local CAMRA branch. There is an admission fee which is reduced for CAMRA members. Pub festivals use professional bar staff, and there are usually no entry fees. Beer festivals organised by student real ale societies - some CAMRA affiliated and some not - have existed for many years, but are currently enjoying something of a boom. These festivals are typically held in students' union premises, and entry is hence sometimes restricted to students and staff, though exceptions may be made for card-carrying CAMRA members. Student beer festivals vary in size but can easily rival local CAMRA events, with beer numbers in the 80-100 cask region. Good examples include Cardiff and Warwick. One of the last sporting bastions of real ale drinking is Rugby. A number of Rrugby clubs organise festivals combining beer drinking with rugby and even live music. A good example is Ashford Rugby Club in Kent, which organises an annual 3 day beer festival each August.
The format of British beer festivals tends to follow a set pattern. Casks of ale from many different brewers are placed on stillage behind rows of trestle tables. Staff serve beer directly from the cask, and take payment in the form of cash or via a token system, where sheets of tokens are purchased at the entrance to the venue in bulk. Consideration must be given to cooling; this is commonly achieved using wet sacking or blankets for evaporative cooling, though refrigerated cooling saddles and coils are increasingly being used. Some festivals in the winter months simply keep the whole venue, or a smaller tap room, at cellar temperature by leaving doors and windows open. Glasses are distributed at the entrance to the venue, usually for a small deposit although often included in the entrance fee. The glasses usually bear a design specific to the festival and are therefore considered to be collectable. A beer list is usually available, often indicating where in the venue the different casks will be situated. Food is usually available, and entertainments and games such as live music, pub quizzes or tombolas are often organised.
In all British beer festivals the beer is sold in quantities of half or full pints. From 2006 the Great British Beer Festival additionally served beer in "nips" (one-third of a pint), for the benefit of those who wish to sample many beers wthout consuming excessive amounts of alcohol.
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