Beer Festivals

Southern Hampshire CAMRA has been running Southampton Beer Festival in its current format since 1997. The first 20 events were at Southampton Guildhall and in 2017 Southampton Beer Festival moved to St Mary's Stadium.

In 2010 we added to this by organising an Autumn Festival, in Woolston, appropriately called Woolston Beer Festival. We repeated this the next year and it has become annual event.

In 2011 we held Winchester Real Ale and Cider Festival at the end of March, returning a CAMRA beer festival to Winchester Guildhall after a gap of 28 years. This was another big success and remained so up until 2020 when it was the last CAMRA beer festival before the Covid lockdown. Since then we have been unable to return to the Guildhall and haven't found a replacement venue.

All the staff at our beer festivals are volunteers. Many members of Southern Hampshire CAMRA also volunteer their time to work at the Great British Beer Festival each year.

Some of our aims in running beer festivals are:

• To serve customers quality cask conditioned real ale.
• To promote real ale to the local community, therefore increasing its popularity.
• To promote membership of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale.

If you'd like us to email you and let you know when we're holding beer festivals then join our "beerfests" mailing list and we'll keep you informed!

Listing policy

For CAMRA beer festivals we list those within 50 miles of our branch area. Please check the individual websites for details. We to research non-CAMRA festivals as best we can and list those within 25 miles of our branch area. Inevitably we will miss a few, some aren't well publicized, so if you know of more please drop us an email and let us know. In any case you should check with the venue for any last minute changes before attending.

CAMRA Beer Festivals

• 35th Dorchester Beerex – 2nd & 3rd February 2024
  Corn Exchange, North Square, Dorchester DT1 1HF
  Open Friday & Saturday 11:00 – 16:00 and 18:30 – 23:30. All sessions £11. Admission includes commemorative glass plus two ½ pints. Tickets on sale now. Run by West Dorset CAMRA.
   
• 6th Bath Winter Ales Festival – 16th & 17th February 2024
  Widcombe Social Club, Widcombe Hill, Bath BA2 6AA
  Two sessions: Friday 16:00 – 22:00; Saturday 11:00 – 19:00. Expect 30 real ales and 8 real ciders. Entrance (advance ticket recommended) £10 – includes £3 of tokens. Run by Bath and Borders CAMRA
   
• Salisbury Winterfest XXV – 16th & 17th February 2024
  Salisbury Guildhall, Market Place, Salisbury SP1 1JH
  Open Friday 18:30 – 23:00 and Saturday 11:00 – 20:00. All tickets £9, including glass & souvenir programme. Tickets now on sale on-line only. Run by Salisbury & South Wilts CAMRA.
   
• Gosport Winterfest XXX – 1st & 2nd March 2024
  Thorngate Halls, Bury Road, Gosport PO12 3PX
  Three sessions: Fri 12:00 – 16:00 'quiet' session, tickets £5; Fri 18:00 – 23:00, tickets £10 & Sat 12:00 – 20:00, tickets £12. Run by Portsmouth & South East Hampshire CAMRA.
   
• 46th Farnham Beerex – 18th, 19th & 20th April 2024
  Farnham Maltings, Bridge Square, Farnham, Surrey GU9 7QR
  Jointly run by Farnham Lions Club, Farnham Maltings, CAMRA Surrey/Hants Borders Branch, and a number of enthusiastic volunteers, and famously running for 46 years in the same venue. Expect around 60 real ales and 30 ciders & perries. Food and entertainment each session. Open Thursday evening 18:00 – 23:00, and Friday & Saturday 11:00 – 15:00 & 18:00 – 23:00. Tickets prices TBA; they should be on sale around 8th December.
   

For CAMRA festivals over the whole of the UK see the main CAMRA website
 

Non-CAMRA Beer Festivals

Many beer festivals take place in our branch area, or nearby, that are not CAMRA beer festivals. Despite being unable to endorse these events, we believe that any beer festival that sells quality cask-conditioned real ales should be supported (see you there!). The information given here is purely for the benefit of readers, and is accurate to the best of our knowledge.
To get your beer festival listed here send an email to beerfestivals@shantscamra.org.uk

If you know of any more non-CAMRA beer festivals in our branch area then please email the details to us.