A few thoughts on beer festivals, with reference to location, range of beers, prices, measures, fun factor and several other factors besides

There's been quite a lot of debate recently about beer festivals, the different types, what these types are, and how they function. The debate was sparked partially by controversy regarding the recent Champion Beer of Britain contest, which thrust beer festivals into the limelight, but primarily by my visit last week, to the London Craft Beer Festival. My thoughts concerning the measures used at the event were reinforced by remarks made by brewer and fellow Blogger Ed Wray, on his own site.

Ed was complaining about the measures used at LCBF, which were “samples” or more accurately sips, and as we all know, beer can’t be tasted in sip.  Charles Dickens famously wrote in the Old Curiosity Shop, "Did you ever taste beer?" "I had a sip of it once," said the small servant. "Here's a state of things!" cried Mr Swiveller, raising his eyes to the ceiling. "She never tasted it — it can't be tasted in a sip!"

Many others have said the same thing, including Good Beer Guide completest Retired Martin, who maintains that a pint is a taster, a statement that is much nearer the mark. Others have said similar things, and whilst I would accept that a half pint is just about acceptable, where does this leave the third of a pint measures, introduced by CAMRA over the course of the last decade or so. This brings me onto another subject, and again a controversial one, which concerns the price of a beer at these events.

At LCBF all “samples” of beer were free, and there was no admission charge either – at least there wasn't for people like Ed and me who qualified for Press Passes. This made me think of the many beer festivals I’ve attended over the years, both in the UK, but also out in Germany. Festivals majoring on beer are a relative newcomer to the UK and were inspired by people from the UK who visited German beer festivals and liking what they saw and experienced decided to set up their own events back home.

The honour of holding the first UK beer festival, belongs to Cambridge. The four-day event took place in July 1974, and was held at the city’s Corn Exchange, with 6,000 eager drinkers in attendance. Other events followed, with the first Kent Beer Festival taking place a year later, in a marquee at Canterbury's Dane John Gardens, back in 1975. The principal organiser of the event was a girl called Gill Keay (nee Knight), who I met when a former school friend and I attended our first CAMRA meeting at the City Arms, close to Canterbury cathedral. In an extraordinary feat, Gill went on to run 40 Kent Beer Festivals, before finally stepping down for a well-deserved rest in 2014.

1975, also saw CAMRA holding its first national beer festival, held at the old flower market in London’s Covent Garden. Billed as the Covent Garden Beer Exhibition, the event was a huge success, that helped introduce the delights of cask beer to a much wider, and appreciative audience. I attended the Friday lunchtime session with a friend from university, and we were bowled over by the number of independent breweries with beer on sale at the event. We returned the following evening, but with queues snaking right around the outside of the building, we were unable to gain admittance.  

I've written about this event before, so it's worth clicking on the link above to read what things were like in those early days. There was certainly something special and unique about that event and many other people must have felt the same because Covent Garden was the forerunner to dozens of successive festivals, both national and local. All had a common thread, namely a wide and varied selection of cask ales, many of which would never have been seen in the locality before – certainly in the early days!

So about European beer festivals? Although I never attended any, and can find very little research material about them, during the 1980’s a succession of rather beery events were held in the Belgian town of Ostend.  These “beer festivals” were designed to particularly appeal to beer drinkers from the UK and rather than tasting lots of different beers, the idea seemed to be tip as much industrial lager down one's neck as possible!

These events still take place, although they seem to have mellowed over the past 40 years, but of far more interest to serious beer drinkers are the festivals held in Germany, the most famous one being Munich’s world-famous Oktoberfest. There are other, less well-known beer festivals that take place in the Federal Republic, and many of them are not only long-established, but originated as folk, or even religious festivals. I've been fortunate to have experienced three of these events, all of which were different, in their own way.

In date order, these events, were Annafest 2013, Frankenfest 2015, and in 2017 the granddaddy of them all, Munich’s Oktoberfest. With the possible exception of Frankenfest, the other two events have been running for many years, and confirming what I said above, both bill themselves as folk festivals rather than beer festival's. Oktoberfest, of course, is known all over all over the world, whereas Annafest is a strictly local event, but is none the worse for that. Coming somewhere in between is Nuremberg’s Frankenfest.

A strictly limited number of breweries supply beers to Annafest and Oktoberfest, and both festivals events serve the beer only in one litre Maβ mugs - stoneware in the case of Annafest and glass at Oktoberfest. Such measures are the polar opposite of the “taster” samples dished out at London Craft Beer Festival, but whilst on the subject of small measures, the United States own event, the Great American Beer Festival, serves the beers in absurd one ounce “pours”, as our American cousins describe these thimble's. One “gulp pours” would be more appropriate!

Returning to the two German festivals described above, as well as large measures, the beers themselves are on the strong side, with a typical abv of 6%.  In the end, it is this combination of large volumes and a high alcohol content, that finishes off all but the most hardened drinkers, and I certainly found that three litres of these strong “Fest Biers” was more than enough. Despite the high octane and large volume, there was a great party atmosphere at both events, with the added attraction of live music in the evenings, all designed to get people in the swing and, of course, encourage rapid consumption of the beer.

Annafest is an outdoor event that takes place on a wooded hill overlooking the small Franconian town of Forchheim, situated roughly halfway between Nuremberg and Bamberg, and Frankenfest is also an outdoor festival. The latter event is held in the spacious moat of the massive castle that dominates the skyline of the old city of Nuremberg. There are many more beers on sale than at the other two festivals, with 25 -30 or possibly even more. The half litre measures are also far more sensible too.

Oktoberfest of course, needs little in the way of introduction. Not only is the event world famous, it is also very commercial, and is over 200 years old. The festival is held in massive “tents” at the Theresienwiese meadow (know colloquially as the "Wiesn") , close to central Munich, but the tents are really temporary beer halls - semi-permanent structures, which are disassembled after the event, and then erected again the following summer, ready for that year’s Oktoberfest. 

The Bailey family enjoyed our time at Oktoberfest 2017, and with only a small window to experience the festival, (we were en route to our main holiday destination), we arrived at the Wiesn not long after the 11 am opening. We found a very family friendly atmosphere, with lots of quite scary fairground rides and other attractions, such as shooting galleries, but we still had time to enjoy a Maβ each of Fest Bier, along some equally hearty, Bavarian fare.Things change, and as the day wears on into night time, the party is in full swing, and the tents are bursting at seams. If you haven't got a reservation, then you might as well pack up and go home. 

Back in 2017, we had long departed by then, as we had a train to Regensburg to catch, but footage I've seen and peoples experiences I have read about, all point to an enthusiastic, raucous but good-natured atmosphere which looks and sounds like tremendous fun, especially if you are part of a large crowd. 

These German beer festivals are all free to enter, but so too are the majority of British events. Home grown beer festivals are staffed largely by unpaid volunteers, but this is not the case in Germany, where prices are necessarily inflated to cover staffing costs, plus the overheads and substantial running costs associated with these events. This is particularly true in the case of Oktoberfest, and whilst self-service is the norm at Nuremberg’s Frankenfest, table service from strong-armed and busty, Dirndl-clad, Bavarian maidens, is the norm at the other two events.

Frankenfest is the event that is most similar to a British beer festival, because it offers the opportunity of sampling a wide range of beers from different producers. Contrast this with Annafest and Oktoberfest where there are beers from just half a dozen or so brewers on sale. Both are definitely more of a hugging, glugging, and chugging event, where having a good time is the main objective, rather than obsessing over which beer is the best, which has the most malt or the best hop aroma.

I love them all, but I think I've had the chance to only go back to just one, it would have to be Annafest, purely for the simplicity of the event, its rustic, outdoor setting, and the fact it remains a local event, albeit one where visitors from afar are both welcomed and encouraged.