Beer festivals galore!

The Philharmonic Dining Rooms

The CAMRA Liverpool Beer Festival begins today; no point in rushing down as it's ticket only, and is sold out according to the website. I'll be there on Saturday as the band I'm in, the Lunchtime Legends, will be playing during the afternoon session. Should be interesting, especially in the light of my previous criticism of this festival's arcane ticket arrangements, although I have always acknowledged that running this festival is a massive task and the venue is wonderful.

As the Liverpool Beer Festival is a big occasion, a number of pubs like to join in by putting on their own festivals for drinkers to go to before or after their visit to the CAMRA one, or instead for the ticketless. So, if you don't have a ticket, you still have these fine choices:

·   The Dispensary on Renshaw Street has a festival to the 24 February with up to 50 beers on. Tel: 0151 709 2160.
·   The Augustus John is behind Blackwells bookshop on Brownlow Hill and is running its Beer and Cider Festival to 23 February.
·   The Ship & Mitre, 133 Dale Street, is running its real ale festival to 24 February. This pub usually has about 12 real ales on anyway, and frequently runs themed festivals throughout the year.
·   The splendid Philharmonic Dining Rooms (to give the pub its correct name), 36 Hope Street Liverpool L1 9BX, is running a festival until 24 February.

If you want, you can have a festival pub crawl around the city. As they're all pubs, there is of course no charge to get in.