The Session

The Session is a concept created by Appellation Beer.

http://appellationbeer.com/blog/

It is a monthly event for the beer blogging community to post on a common subject on the same day (the first Friday of the month).
Each month a different blogger hosts "The Session" and chooses the subject. For June the subject is "beer festivals". and The Session is hosted by Geistbear.

Much has been written about beer festivals and the question of beer festival or pub, which is better? Has been done to death.

So I'm going to talk about the beer festival in isolation and look at some of the beer festivals I've attended, both at home and abroad. I'll try to answer the questions:

• What makes a good festival?


• What is the best type of location?


• Should there be music?


• Should there be food?


• How big should it be?

St Ives, Cambridgeshire

An annual CAMRA beer festival in the middle of September usually selling about 55 draught real ales as well as cider, perry and foreign bottled beer. I used to live in St Ives and worked at this CAMRA festival for a few years. It's great to get involved and so I have a special fondness for this festival. I'd have to say that the location, within a modern sports complex was not the best and that the food was a bit basic. It was a one room festival so there was nowhere to escape the music, I think that a musical element should be present but I would like the option of escaping at times. The size was about right in terms of size of venue, number of beers and number of people.

Annafest, Forchheim, Franconia, Germany

Annafest is held in july each year, in theory as a festival in honour of St Anna, however, the dominant feature of the festival is the beer. 26 bierkeller on one hill open there doors and sell specially brewed festbier in volumes of one litre (mass) only. The location is unbeatable, there is a variety of music but you can always move on. A good variety of food is on offer and it is plenty big enough. However, I have one big criticism, I would prefer the option to buy smaller quantities and the prices are far too high.

Cambridge

An annual CAMRA beer festival in June usually selling about 150 draught real ales. The location is within marquees on a park near the centre of Cambridge, I can't remember much about the music but it is possible to escape from it, food was average to reasonable and although the number of beers sounds impressive the number actually for sale at any one time was only about 50%

Thetford Forest

A festival I came across by accident in a small tent at High Lodge in Thetford forest. great location, no music, no food although there is a cafe nearby and only a dozen or so beers. I liked it a lot.

Bedford

Another CaMRA festival similar to the St Ives festival in most respects but in a slightly more pleasant hall.

Peterborough

CAMRA's second festival after the GBBF in terms of size and number of visitors. Over 300 beer and 40,000 visitors. Held in three large marquees by the river Nene in the centre of Peterborough. Good live music in the centre marquee only, reasonable food selection and just about enough beer. Held during the week leading up to the August Bank Holiday. A magnificent effort regularly let down by the weather.

German Beer Festival in London

Held recently at the Zeitgeist pub in London over three days, unfortunately I chose to attend on the third day but all the beer had been sold by the second night. I hear it went really well and judging by the speed of beer consumption I suppose it did!

Pub Beer Festival in Pucklechurch Somerset

Some friends used to live in this quant village and invited us each year for their local pub's beer festival. Held in a marquee adjacent to the pub with a barbeque, excellent live music and a selection of 20+ local beers. Always felt more like a big party than a beer festival and I think that's a good thing.

Pub Beer Festival Rose & Crown, March

My local has started holding two beer festivals per year in a small marquee in the beer garden, a small range of local beers is the only attraction. I'm not complaining, that's all I need.

Summary

The term beer festival seems to cover a wide range of types of event and all the factors that I've been considering vary enormously from one to another.

Overall the outdoor festivals do it for me and of this type I suppose a German bierkeller environment is about as good as it gets.

Music is generally a good thing as long as it's live and that the festival is big enough to give you somewhere to escape to if necessary for conversation and /or quiet contemplation of your beer.

Food if done at all should be good value but of a reasonable standard. Also the greater the range on offer the better.

I think the size is possibly the least important facto although the largest of festivals can become very impersonal.

Conclusion

In the final analysis, I intend to visit more beer festivals of as many different types as possible. It seems to me that the overall quality and value of what's on offer is far more important than any individual factor.