Sadly, there will not be a Great British Beer Festival in 2024. CAMRA’s events director, Catherine Tonry, explained, “While we are understandably extremely disappointed that CAMRA’s flagship event will not take place, we are now looking at a range of options for its triumphant return in 2025. It has been a difficult decision to make as it is the highlight of our calendar. Unfortunately, our current venue could not offer us the dates we needed. It is essential that the Great British Beer Festival is the absolute best it can be for our valued volunteers, wider membership and customers. Ongoing building works could also affect CAMRA being able to host its flagship festival to the high standards customers and members have come to expect. While other venues have been explored, due to timescales, costs and our requirements we have not being able to secure a suitable venue.”
CAMRA’s Champion Beer of Britain competition, the finals of which are usually held at the GBBF, will still take place and alternative arrangements are being made accordingly.
Many people asked on social media why CAMRA could not find an alternative venue. I found some of the comments (for example, calling the organisers ‘clowns’) unnecessarily abusive. There are indeed, as people said, a number of venues around the country but, as anyone who has actually been involved in organising an event of this size will know, it isn’t as simple as that. One crucial aspect is that most venues subcontract their key functions to third parties, in particular security, catering and, most importantly, alcohol supply. Usually the terms and conditions of hire mean that hirers of the venue are obliged to use these contractors. CAMRA has its own team of stewards, many of whom are Security Industry Association accredited. They understand how to steward a beer festival; the venue’s contractors would not. Similarly, we like to bring in a range of catering concessions to give visitors a range of options. Most venue caterers will only have a limited offering. Finally, the venue’s alcohol contractors will simply not be able to provide the range of beers and ciders that the GBBF exists to provide. Several years ago, one alternative venue that we were negotiating with told us that we could bring in our own alcohol so long as we paid their contractors a fee of £1 a pint, which, obviously, was simply not viable. As I say, it isn’t as easy as you might think.