Peterborough CAMRA Beer Festival 2015 – A Magna-ificent Event in the City! @BoroBeerFest

In just under 10 weeks’ time Peterborough CAMRA will be hosting the 38^th annual beer festival. The dates for this year’s event are Tuesday 25^th – Saturday 29^th August.

The theme of this year’s logo is the 800^th anniversary of the sealing of the Magna Carta, which is being celebrated by events across the country with June 15^th being declared Beer Day Britain. In fact, beer drinkers should all raise a glass to this important historic charter as Clause 35 declared:

“Let there be throughout our kingdom a single measure for wine and a single measure for ale and a single measure for corn, namely ‘the London quarter’”

Held in 3 huge marquees on the River Nene Embankment, the Peterborough Beer Festival proudly displays one of the largest selections of real ale anywhere in the country. Last year, over 420 different cask beers were on sale from over 170 brewers. A huge range of foreign bottled beers, and UK produced wine, cider and perries are also available and as always the Escape Bar provides the soft drinks.

This organisers are currently in the process of selecting and sourcing all the beer for the festival and a provisional list will be posted on the Peterborough CAMRA website from July onwards. This will, once again, include a number of festival specials that are brewed specifically for the Peterborough festival. An exclusive collaboration ale with a well-known brewer and Peterborough CAMRA will also feature at this year’s festival – details are still top secret! Previous years have seen beers brewed in conjunction with Hand Drawn Monkey (Huddersfield) /Bexar County (Peterborough), Hopshackle of Market Deeping and Brewsters of Grantham.

The layout is set to remain the same as in previous years with a “horseshoe” style walk-around enabling access from either side of the marquees. Cask ales are laid out alphabetically by brewery from the main entrance side allowing easy cross-referencing against beer lists in the festival programme. The popular ‘Singles’ bar is back in 2015 – the bar where only one cask of a particular brew is available. Bottled beer, cider and wine each have their own separate bar and are staffed by volunteers who have specific knowledge of these products and can answer questions about styles and tastes.

Key Facts and Figures about the Peterborough Beer Festival:

• Up to 30,000 visitors every year
• Open all day from Wednesday
• Real ales – over 90,000 pints sold; an average of 3 pints per visitor per session
• Bottles sold – 10,500 bottles of world beers sourced from 10 different countries
• Last year 21 festival special beers and 43 new breweries represented
• Cider – over 13,000 pints sold
• Over 15,000 glasses used
• Staffed by over 300 CAMRA volunteers from across the UK
• 1,500 metres of fencing around the site
• Over £1/4M raised for the RNLI at the festival since 1989

Live music in 2015

As always, live music features every day at the Peterborough Beer Festival. Here is a complete programme of events:

Tuesday 25th August:

• 7pm Open Mic Night with Stacey ((if you are interested in performing please contact Stacey at vocalsoulmate@hotmail.co.uk)

Wednesday 26th August:

• 8pm Grumpy Old Men (1960’s to present day rock and pop from a group of musicians who still like to behave like teenagers)

Thursday 27th August:

• 7.30pm The Stringlers (chart topping tunes from an all-female string quartet who have a passion for music from just about every genre)
• 9.15pm The Expletives (exciting punk / new-wave covers “delivered with energy, fire and skill) Music vs. The World has been to many of their gigs – here’s a review!

Friday 28th August:

• 4pm Palmerston Ukulele Band (not just the house band at the Palmy anymore, the PUB, as they are affectionately known, after their first gig at PBF 2 years ago are now in demand everywhere they go!)
• 7.30pm The Dizzy Miss Lizzys (Led by Peterborough’s own guitar virtuoso Gizz Butt, this top class rock n roll outfit will get everyone on their feet singing and dancing along. Fact. Music vs. The World wholeheartedly agrees!!)
• 9.15pm The Activators (On the back of playing numerous European gigs and festivals. this 10 piece rock/ska/reggae/world music band are ready to entertain you)

Saturday 29th August:

• 2pm Doug Heath (soulful lyrics and intricate guitar playing from this local singer-songwriter)
• 3pm The Lartey Sisters (Beautiful songs crafted by two siblings who have recently been in the studio with that well known Cockney Rebel, Steve Harley)
• 4pm Nick Corney and the Buzz Rats (Let Nick and the band take your ears on a musical rollercoaster as they play out original songs from their impressive set)
• 5pm Lone Groover (One man and his guitar. Add in folk, punk and Americana and you have classic songs of beauty, protest and passion)
• 7.30 pm Tin Pigeons (Last year this indie folk band absolutely conquered the stage at PBF. This year they are back even bigger and better. Not bad for four lads who only started the band at school 4 years ago!) Music vs. The World says: I saw these lads busking in Stamford a couple of years back, and they are truly brilliant!!!
• 9pm The Replicas (After a two and a half year break this much-loved band are back on the live scene. Taking in Ska/Punk/Indie/Northern Soul the Replicas are a band for everyone and not to be missed)

Times and Prices

Tuesday 25th August*	5.30pm – 11pm	£5.00
*Trade-Only session starts at 3pm
Wednesday 26th August	Noon – 3pm	£2.00
	3pm – 11pm	£5.00
Thursday 27th August	Noon – 3pm	£2.00
	3pm – 11pm	£6.00
Friday 28th August	Noon – 3pm	£2.00
	3pm – 11pm	£6.00
Saturday 29th August	Noon – 3pm	£2.00
	3pm – 11pm	£6.00

CAMRA / ECBU PRICES:

Tuesday 25^th: £3

Weds 26^th – Sat 29^th: before 3pm £1 / after 3pm £3

Pass outs are available after 5pm.

Peterborough Beer Festival is staffed entirely by unpaid CAMRA volunteers many of whom travel from all over the country to take part. A core Festival Committee work months in advance to plan, organise and deliver the annual 5 day event.

CAMRA is a non-commercial organisation and the Peterborough Beer Festival is an expensive event to host. Each year we offer sponsorship opportunities for you to promote your business at the festival and these start at only £100. If you would like to know more please contact our sponsorship manager Kevin Fordham on 07933 397767 or send an email to sponsorship@beer-fest.org.uk – Music vs. The World is sponsoring a barrel of beer – go seek it out and try it!!

For up to date information on all aspects of the Festival including beer lists, prices, advance programmes and much more please visit the official website. You can also follow the Festival on Twitter and on Facebook where you can leave your comments and also receive information on the latest news.

I hope to see you all there – watch this space for reviews and photos from the weekend’s fun and frolics!