Sunday 5 March 2017

30th Wigan Beer Festival

The Wigan pieman celebrates his 30th
I returned to Southport yesterday after working for two days at the 30th Wigan Beer Festival. My first task was on the judging panel to help choose the beers of the festival, and then I was mainly on the doors. As always, I enjoyed my time volunteering there.

The funny thing about working at a beer festival is that you seem to end up drinking rather less than you might expect, considering the amount of time you're in there, mainly because the beer is an adjunct to the task you've been assigned.

How busy you are varies, sometimes with extreme peaks and troughs. On the admissions door at Wigan, we had periods of relative quiet punctuated by frantic activity each time the bus came in from Wigan town centre. As the festival venue, a sports hall, is more than a mile from Wigan town centre, the local bus preservation trust provides a free bus service to and from the festival (voluntary donations are encouraged towards their costs).

I think I've commented before that Wigan seems to attract a more diverse range of drinkers than most festivals I've been to, with groups of young women coming in without males in tow, which I've found to be less common elsewhere. Okay, the gender balance is still skewed towards men, but it's still noticeably different. Contrary to some people's expectations, they don't all gravitate towards the cider and perry bar. The DW Stadium is just across the road, so we had a large number of rugby fans, male and female, both before and after the match to add to the mix.

I didn't get to try very many beers, but of those I did try, I found that Waimea, a 5.2% single hop IPA from Manchester's Blackjack Brewery particularly suited me. I don't know how it's pronounced, but my guess is 'why me'.

I find the Wigan festival is a very friendly one, both the other volunteers and the public. Looking forward to next year already.

4 comments:

  1. What do they pay to work these things?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Free beer and food, plus a thank you trip, usually to a brewery.

      Delete
    2. Well it's not free is it?if you have to labour for it. That's like saying if you get a job they give you free money. It is isn't free if you have to work for it.

      Isn't the lack of actual renumeration in terms of money exploitation? Didn't the labour movement exist to stop this sort of subsistence work for a dinner and pint exploitative practice?

      Delete
    3. Turning the tables on the Leftie, CL? Neat!

      Delete

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