The Great British Beer Festival (sometimes abbreviated as GBBF) is an annual

beer festival A beer festival is an event at which a variety of beers are available for purchase. There may be a theme, for instance beers from a particular area, or a particular brewing style such as winter ales. Asia * Singapore holds an annual Beer Festiva ...

organised by the

Campaign for Real Ale The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is an independent voluntary consumer organisation headquartered in St Albans, England, which promotes real ale, cider and perry and traditional British pubs and clubs. With just under 155,000 members, it is ...

(CAMRA). It presents a selection of

cask ale Real ale is the name coined by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) for beer that is "brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous ca ...

s, and the

Champion Beer of Britain The Champion Beer of Britain (also known as CBOB) is an award presented by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), at its annual Great British Beer Festival in early August. Qualification and judging Beers can qualify for the Champion Beer of Brita ...

awards, and is held in August of each year. GBBF's sister festival, the Great British Beer Festival Winter, is held in February each year.

Description

Great British Beer Festival is styled as the "biggest pub in the world" and offers around 900 different beverages, at least 450 of which are beers from British breweries, as well as around 200 foreign beers from countries including

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

and the USA, as well traditional British

cider Cider ( ) is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of apples. Cider is widely available in the United Kingdom (particularly in the West Country) and the Republic of Ireland. The UK has the world's highest per capita consumption, ...

and

perry Perry, also known as pear cider, is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears, traditionally the perry pear. It has been common for centuries in England, particularly in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire. It is also mad ...

. The festival is staffed by unpaid volunteers, around 1000 of whom work at the festival. The festival is usually held during the first full week in August and runs from Tuesday to Saturday. The Tuesday afternoon session is only open to the trade and press, with the Champion Beer of Britain award winners being announced mid-afternoon. The general public are admitted to afternoon and evening sessions from Tuesday evening until Saturday evening. CAMRA figures show that in 2006, over 66,000 people visited the festival over the course of the week and consumed some 350,000 pints of beer — one pint sold in less than half of every open second. Part of the huge improvement on 2005 (ticket sales were up 40%) was attributed by the festival organiser, Marc Holmes, to the move from Olympia to

Earls Court Earl's Court is a district of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, bordering the rail tracks of the West London line and District line that separate it from the ancient borough of Fulham to the west, the ...

, a much larger and easily accessible venue. Since 2012 the event has returned to Olympia and remains massively popular. As well as the beer, the festival offers entertainment such as live music and traditional

pub games A pub game is one which is traditionally played inside or outside a pub or bar. Most pub games date back many years and are rooted in village culture. Many derive from older outdoor sports. Pub games can be loosely grouped into throwing games, ...

, as well as a variety of food stands.

Event history

CAMRA Covent Garden Beer Exhibition 1975 half-pint glass

CAMRA held their first large

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

, London in September 1975. It was a 4-day event that attracted 40,000 people who drank 150,000 pints of real ale. Strictly speaking it was not a GBBF, but it has been considered the forerunner of the festival. The first "proper" GBBF was held in 1977 at

Alexandra Palace Alexandra Palace is a Grade II listed entertainment and sports venue in London, situated between Wood Green and Muswell Hill in the London Borough of Haringey. It is built on the site of Tottenham Wood and the later Tottenham Wood Farm. Origi ...

. The venue has moved between cities since it was first established but has settled in London since 1991. The only years in which a festival was not held were 1984, 2020 and 2021, due to a fire at the venue and the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

respectively. * 1977:

, London * 1978: Alexandra Palace, London * 1979: Alexandra Palace, London * 1980: Alexandra Palace, London (in tents after the Palace burnt down) * 1981: Queens Hall,

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...

. Great British Beer Festival held outside London for the first time. * 1982: Queens Hall, Leeds * 1983: Bingley Hall,

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

* 1984: No event * 1985:

Metropole A metropole (from the Greek '' metropolis'' for "mother city") is the homeland, central territory or the state exercising power over a colonial empire. From the 19th century, the English term ''metropole'' was mainly used in the scope of ...

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

* 1986: Metropole, Brighton * 1987: Metropole, Brighton * 1988: Queens Hall, Leeds * 1989: Queens Hall, Leeds * 1990: Metropole, Brighton * 1991: Docklands Arena, London * 1992:

Olympia, London Olympia London, sometimes referred to as the Olympia Exhibition Centre, is an exhibition centre, event space and conference centre in West Kensington, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, London, England. A range of internati ...

* 1993:

* 1994:

* 1995:

* 1996:

* 1997:

* 1998:

* 1999:

* 2000:

* 2001:

* 2002:

* 2003:

* 2004:

* 2005:

* 2006: Earls Court, London * 2007: Earls Court, London Celebrated as the 30th Anniversary of the festival * 2008: Earls Court, London * 2009: Earls Court, London * 2010: Earls Court, London 66,900 people attended * 2011: Earls Court, London 62,446 people attended * 2012:

* 2013:

* 2014:

* 2015:

* 2016:

* 2017:

* 2018:

* 2019:

* 2020:

Cancelled due to

* 2021:

Cancelled due to

* 2022:

References

External links

GBBF website

CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale

Festival of Beer: Search for Beer Festivals around the World

GBBF for tourists
{{Coord, 51, 29, 47, N, 0, 12, 35, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=inline,title Beer festivals in the United Kingdom Annual events in the United Kingdom 1977 establishments in the United Kingdom Recurring events established in 1977 Alexandra Palace