Are Beer Festivals a thing of the past, well at least for the foreseeable future? With current restrictions a traditional event is out of the question obviously, even The Great British Beer Festival has gone virtual, however there is a Beer Festival happening in Tamworth starting this Thursday and running to Sunday, albeit with a twist.
One of the organisers of the Tamworth Town Beer Festival is Adam Randall who has been part of CAMRA for around 25 years. Adam is the Membership Secretary and magazine editor of the Lichfield, Sutton and Tamworth Branch; so a dedicated and long serving member of the campaign.
“Replace is a strong word, but essentially yes,” muses Adam on the purpose of this event. “We were keen to keep our normal festival in people’s minds even though we can’t do it and provide the usual extra footfall for the town’s pubs; the normal CAMRA festival draws in a lot of visitors and the pubs have a busy weekend. a win-win, if you will.”
The lead pubs are the Kings Ditch, the Sir Robert Peel and Tamworth Tap.
“We have approached others but really they’re struggling to do much meaningful; they’ve yet to properly bounce back post lockdown. The lead three always were the strongest contenders in town for both choice and quality and that really has helped them bounce back. Over the weekend there will be 40+ ales, 40+ ciders, though the ales won’t or can’t all be on at once.”
Although the CAMRA logo is on the poster, this is not an official CAMRA event, however it is endorsed by the local branch.
“This is about giving something back to the pubs who in normal years are significant financial supporters of the CAMRA festival with generous sponsorship and supply of ales,” observes Adam. “Truth be told, we didn’t even think of consulting CAMRA HQ, there’s no financial involvement by the branch.”
Unlike the months and months of work needed to organise a big beer festival, the whole event has come together at a remarkable speed.
“We had the conversations with the pubs about five weeks in advance of the event. It’s so quick because all of the usual infrastructure issues disappear such as venue, equipment, staffing, setup etc.”
To keep costs at a minimum, festival t-shirts, commemorative glasses and official programmes will not be available.
“Honest answer is, we never really thought about it,” admits Adam regarding the programme. “As we’re not in control of beer ordering or when they go on, it’s a minefield of likely inaccuracy and disappointment, quite apart from cost. We will look at what online info we can provide.”
As for glasses and t-shirts: “Nah! It would involve us getting too deeply embedded in the event. The idea was really just to provide publicity and then let the pubs largely get on with it! If it became on ongoing event then there’d be the motivation to do more, but it really is intended just as a stopgap.”
The local publicans were unsurprisingly very receptive to the idea.
“If we had to twist their arms then we’d maybe have just abandoned it, no point in pressing others to take risks they’re not happy with. We have a strong relationship with them and they’re always supportive, but also because of the normal footfall issue as above, it should work for them in terms of pound notes! The key thing was knowing that the places were already strong on COVID measures, this won’t turn into a glorified reputation destroying rave and all are recommending or requiring booking.”
Promotion has also been kept very simple.
“Other than a small number of posters displayed locally, it has been almost entirely by social media and surrounding branches. We’re also strong on regular communication with our 1300+ branch members, so they’ll get a couple of emails on it.
“Primarily it’s been such a breeze, I’d say it’s important not to twist arms, and also manage expectations. Should an event be a damp squib, it’s important that the pubs went into it with open eyes i.e. won’t blame CAMRA!”
Such an event has naturally attracted a few negative opinions.
“We’ve had a few critics, people who think we shouldn’t be doing this in a time of COVID but otherwise we’ve had a really good response. We’re happy that the pubs have the measures in place to provide a safe but enjoyable environment, and we’re pleased to be helping both pubs and pub-goers edge back to normality.”
If you can, head over to Tamworth and support the event; The King’s Ditch have eight ales, 20 ciders and three perries, the Tamworth Tap twenty ales including a Welsh selection and twenty ciders and The Sir Robert Peel 15 ales including pub favourites and some from Yorkshire as well as six ciders. Booking is strongly advised for all three pubs, contact details are on the poster.
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