Around this time of year, someone usually asks me: "I suppose you'll be going to the Great British Beer Festival?" It's funny the surprise the answer "no" seems to elicit. I have been to the GBBF twice: it was in the late 1980s when it was in Leeds. It was a much smaller affair than it is now, and I did enjoy my visits, staying in student accommodation and working on pub games for the most part.But London? The cost of travel and accommodation (and admission if you're not volunteering) would add up to a tidy sum even before you raise your first glass to your lips, and frankly I wouldn't find it worthwhile any more. I could easily wander around Southport pubs and find twenty different types of real ale in a day, although I'm not sure whether I could manage that in pints nowadays. The next day, I could travel to Liverpool and find an even bigger range - and this is before you consider Wigan and Preston. Admittedly, these choices will include some familiar beers, but increasingly with the proliferation of micro-breweries, I can usually come across quite a few that are new to me. If I want to try a good range of beers, I can do so with the minimum of travel, and sleep in my own bed.
I'm not criticising the GBBF. It provides tremendously good publicity for real ale (the press loves it), the beer awards are widely broadcast and are taken very seriously by the industry, and it is clearly enjoyed by those who attend, both customers and volunteers. Plus it annoys the craft keg advocates who fulminate that it's an outdated dinosaur, like CAMRA itself, even though the rising attendance figures of the festival, like the membership figures of CAMRA, tend to disprove such arguments.
It's just that if I think about going, the first things that spring to mind are the hassle of travel, finding somewhere to stay and the overall cost. The choice I have in pubs within - say - an hour's travel from home means that the lure of being able to try different beers is much less of a unique selling point than it once was.
But that's just me, though: if you're going, I hope you have a good time.
The Great British Beer Festival - 11 to 15 August at Olympia, Hammersmith Road, London, W14 8UX.
Wouldn't dream of going. I don't often drink to excess, but when I go to a beer festival I do tend to get trollied. Doing that away from home would mean at best a long tedious come-down on my own in a hotel room. At worst...! No ta.
ReplyDeleteOh dear Phil, not going to beer festival? I can feel a blog post coming on ;-)
DeleteOnce bitten!
DeleteI went for the first time last year and enjoyed it. I stopped at a mate's in West London so only had travel costs and admission and beer are both reasonably priced. I'm not sure how many of the beers at GBBF you could find on a pub crawl in Lancashire, probably not the Fuller's ESB or Harvey's XX Mild I drank there last year.
ReplyDeleteI’ve mixed feelings about GBBF, Nev. I didn’t go last year, and I didn’t miss it. I will probably go along this year, but obviously it’s a lot easier for me, living as close to the capital as I do. However, I will only go to be sociable, as my wife’s niece plus a work colleague and his wife, want to go. None of them have been before, so have asked if I could act as their guide. I therefore can’t really say no!
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I haven’t really enjoyed the festival. It may sound perverse to say so, but it’s far too big, there are far too many beers to choose from, plus it gets far too busy for my liking.
These days, I much prefer smaller festivals, such as pub festivals or events organised by a local CAMRA branch. I also prefer outdoor events, or festivals where one can venture outside and sit on the grass whilst enjoying a beer. Locally both the Kent and Maidstone beer festivals offer this facility; although it is, of course, totally dependent on the weather. The two festivals I’ve been to in Germany in recent years, (Annafest and Fränkisches Bierfest), were both totally outdoor events and really enjoyable, but the weather in Central Europe is generally more reliable, and certainly hotter, than here in the UK.
It’s strange when people automatically assume that just because you’re a CAMRA member, you will be going along to GBBF. I’ll see what it’s like this year, and who knows I might be pleasantly surprised, but if I my services, as a guide, were not required, then I would almost certainly be giving it a miss.