Southampton Beer Festival 2008 5th to 7th June at Southampton Guildhall (5 minutes walk from Southampton Central Railway Station) Tickets on sale now!

[Opening Hours] [Ticket Sales] [About the festival] [How to get there] [Working at the festival] [Help us advertise] [What beers will there be?] [Your questions answered]

Festival Opening Hours: [Top of page]

*Commemorative pint or half-pint glass included in price except Friday Lunchtime where there is a £2 deposit.

Ticket Sales: [Top of page]

Tickets for the Beer Festival are available from several outlets and by post; details below. Further information is available from Ian on (023) 8077 8906 or by email tickets@shantscamra.org.uk . Please note that these are information services only and cannot be used to order or reserve tickets; see below for ordering details.

Advance ticket purchase is strongly recommended to guarantee entry.

About The Festival: [Top of page]

This year will be the twelth Southampton Beer Festival. The beer festival is organised and run by unpaid volunteers who are members of the Southern Hampshire Branch of the Wessex Region of CAMRA (The Campaign for Real Ale).

The following are a few highlights of the beer festival:

• The "Hampshire Beer of the Year 2008" competition will be judged and announced on the Thursday night of the festival.
• There will be a range of approximately 90 real ales.
• There will be a range of approximately 16 ciders and perries.
• The bottled beer bar will have an extensive range of beers from Britain, Europe and around the world. The bottled beer is supplied to us by Bitter Virtue, Southampton's Beer Shop.
• All the cask beers on sale will be cooled to cellar temeratures.
• There will be a family room off the main festival hall.
• Southampton Guildhall is a non-smoking venue
• We have live music at three of the five sessions.
• We encourage our staff to try the beers (although not too many!) in order that they are knowledgeable on the beers that they are serving.
• There will be food on sale at the Guildhall's canteen.
• Crisps and soft drinks will be available at the bars.
• Seats and tables will be provided.

We look forward to welcoming you to the beer festival...

How to get to Southampton Beer Festival: [Top of page]

The following map shows how to find Southampton Beer Festival from Southampton Central Station.

More detailed maps of the area are available from http://www.google.co.uk/maps and http://www.streetmap.co.uk/. Train times are available from Network Rail, local buses from Uni-Link, First Southampton & Solent Blue Lines

Fancy working at the Beer Festival? [Top of page]

Southampton Beer Festival is organised and run by volunteers. As the phrase says, many hands make light work - so we always welcome new volunteers. If you are interested in working then please contact Rachel on (023) 8078 9199 or by email staffing.sbf2008@shantscamra.org.uk. You can also download a staffing form (PDF format, 69kB).

Can you help us advertise the Beer Festival? [Top of page]

You can download posters & flyers to print out and put on your office noticeboard and pass on to friends and colleagues.
Click here for Southampton area A4 poster listing ticket outlets (pdf file - 175KB download)
Click here for generic A4 poster (pdf file - 175KB download)
Click here A5 flyers (pdf file - 177KB download) - print this onto A4 using 'print to fit', slice in half and you have A5 flyers.

If you'd be willing to deliver some flyers around the area that you live then please email us.

What beers will there be at the festival? [Top of page]

We have a policy of not releasing the beer list for the festival in advance. There are many reasons for this, but the main one is that we are unable to guarantee that all beers will arrive and won't be able to keep the website up to date. Our policy has been vindicated in the past when one of our main wholesale suppliers let us down very badly and neither delivered what we ordered, nor delivered it on time.

What we can tell you is that there will be old and new breweries represented, big and small, and a huge variety of tastes and styles, numbering about 90 beers in all.

The festival programme (given to you free upon entry) will contain a full list of all the beers which we have ordered, with information about each (including a short description).

Your questions answered [Top of page]

We do read the comments that customers write on the feedback forms and take them into account when organising the following year's festival. We would like to thank previous customers who have taken the trouble to give us feedback and for the many positive and constructive comments that we received. Many of the subjects below attract equal amounts of praise and criticism. Here we answer some of the more common questions or requests.

Hall layout
For the busier sessions we do have to strike a balance between maximising the number of tables and chairs and allowing free movement around the hall. The beer stillage has to be where it is because there are large areas of the hall that we cannot use because it is a sprung dance floor.

Entertainment
It is impossible to keep all of the customers happy all of the time, though last year's comments regarding the music on offer were generally positive. We do have two sessions without music for those who prefer it that way.

Food
We make suggestions as to the selection of food that is on offer, taking into account customer feedback from previous festivals. The food is supplied by outside caterers. CAMRA has no control over the price of the food.

Temperature in the Guildhall
The Guildhall is an old building with no air conditioning. Ventilation fans are at maximum throughout the event. We would love the venue to be air conditioned too!

Signposting
The outside of the Guildhall is a listed building. This means we are unable to display banners, etc. outside the entrance. We do put directions to the entrance on the tickets.

Prices
We would obviously like to reduce the prices of the beer and the entrance fee. The festival does not make a big profit as the costs of staging the event are large. The money raised goes towards CAMRA's campaigns to maintain and improve the availability and quality of real ale.

Half pint glasses
We have increased the order for half pint glasses this year and we will monitor uptake to see if we need to adjust the order for next year.

Beer availability
We will try to ensure that no beer runs out before opening on Saturday. Beers marked "not ready" have not reached saleable condition. All beers that are ready on Thursday evening will be put on sale. Some beers will not be ready by Thursday as we do not gain access to the Guildhall until Wednesday morning. It would cost a lot more to gain access earlier. Beers marked "on later" will be available for a limited time during the session to ensure there is some left for later sessions. We cannot afford to have a large amount of beer left at the end of the festival as this would affect the viability of future festivals. There were 23 different beers on sale when the festival closed in 2007.

Admission
In recent years many sessions have been sold out in advance. We have had to restrict entry to some sessions to ensure that there is beer left for later sessions. We have stated in our advertising that Advance ticket purchase is advised to guarantee entry. We already order as much beer as we can fit into the space available so expansion to allow a higher attendance is not currently an option.

Smoking
Even prior to the national ban, Southampton Guildhall became a non-smoking venue soon after the 2005 Southampton Beer Festival. For those who would like to smoke outside, we have put in place a system where you can safely leave your glass with us (as you're not allowed to take beer from the festival) and re-enter the festival afterwards.