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Thirsty Thirty Years - 2007 Great British Beer Festival
by Christine Cryne
CAMRA’s Great British Beer Festival is celebrating its thirtieth birthday in
style this year at Earls Court in August. Real ales, imported beer, ciders and
perries mix in with live entertainment, pub games, craft stands and food of all
sorts to guarantee a good time out.
The first Great British Beer Festival was at Alexandra Palace, after testing
out the idea at Covent Garden. Back in the 1970s, the Festival tried to have every
brewery producing real ale produce, which then amounted to only 122 and around 300
beers. Today although there are hundreds of thousands of pints on sale this feat
is no longer possible; for thanks to CAMRA there are now over 2,500 different
real ales being brewed in Britain by over 600 breweries.
So what else has changed? The sad thing is to see the demise of so many of the
family brewers that were around at the first Festival but not all were as committed
to real ale back then as they are today. Fullers, for example, had many keg only
pubs; what a contrast to 2007 where the name of Fullers and real ale go hand in
hand.
The Festival offers increased seating today, with people being more inclined to
want to sit and savour their pint. There is also an expanded range of food stands,
with a bigger and more exotic variety and there are more things to do. Tutored
tastings did not exist, neither did the breweriana auction and there was certainly
not the fun games such as roll the barrel. If you have never tried it, be warned,
it is not as easy as it looks!
But live entertainment has always been present with a varying mix as tastes
changed over the years. Blues, folk and brass have continually been heard but
classical music with Chaminade only made an appearance in 1991 when the Festival
returned to London with the event at the London Arena in the Docklands before moving
to Olympia the following year where it remained until 2005. In between Alexandra
Palace (which it moved from when the venue burnt down) and Earls Court, the Festival
has been to Leeds, Birmingham and Brighton. But wherever the Festival has been held
the one thing that has not altered is good real ale and the real sense of fun. If
you have never been to the Festival, or simply want an excuse to return, what better
time to do it than in 2007 and help celebrate the biggest beer birthday of the decade.
And if you book in advance, there are discounts on the entry fees. The Festival is
open 7-11th August; visit www.gbbf.org.uk for
more details.
Reproduced from the Full Pint, Issue 41.
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