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 but 2024 is looking good for a new venue 7th & 8th June, more details soon.

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

• Yapton Beerex – 15th, 16th & 17th May 2026
  Yapton and Ford Village Hall, Yapton, West Sussex BN18 0ET
  Always a good festival, especially if the weather is fine, and this year is the 34th Yapton Beer Festival. Fri 12:00 – 21:30; Sat 12:00 – 21:00; Sun 12:00 – 15:00. Tickets £10 Friday, £10 Saturday (£4 from 17:00) and free entrance Sunday. Tickets available online and from selected pubs. There is now a scheduled bus service (Stagecoach 500) to & from Barnham so the vintage bus service has been retired. Run by Western Sussex CAMRA.
   
• Kingston Beer & Cider Festival 2025 – 11th, 12th & 13th June 2026
  Kingston Workmen's Club & Institute, 25 Old London Road, Kingston Upon Thames KT2 6ND
  12:00 – 22:30 Thursday; 11:00 – 22:30 Friday; 11:00 – 19:00 Saturday. Tickets £20 Thursday & Friday (includes £12 beer tokens and £3 glass deposit), £10 Saturday (includes £6 beer tokens and £3 glass deposit). Run by Kingston & Leatherhead CAMRA.
   
• 13th Winchester Beer & Cider Festival – 12th & 13th June 2026
  University of Winchester Students Union, Sparkford Road, Winchester SO22 4NR
  Three sessions Fri 11:30 – 16:00 & 18:30 – 22:30, Sat 11:30 – 20:00. Friday sessions £10, Saturday session £12. Up to 60 cask ales plus a range of real ciders, craft beer and perry, and a selection of bottled/canned beers. Tickets (£10/£12) on sale now, either on-line, by post or from selected pubs. Run by our own Southern Hampshire CAMRA branch.
   
• 13th Maidenhead Beer & Cider Festival – 3rd & 4th July 2026
  NMCC Sports Bar, Summerleaze Park, off Summerleaze Road, Maidenhead, Berks, SL6 8SP
  12:00 – 22:00 both days. Tickets £12, which includes £9 worth (two pints) of beer. Run by Slough, Windsor & Maidenhead CAMRA
   
• 35th Ealing Beer Festival – 8th, 9th, 10th & 11th July 2026
  Walpole Park, Ealing W5 5BS
  Details not announced yet but expect 12:00 – 22:30 Wednesday to Friday, 12:00 – 20:00 Saturday. Featuring over 330 cask beers, ciders, perries, and craft keg beers. Ticketing TBA. All details will be on the website in due course. Run by West London CAMRA.
   
• Basingstoke Beer Festival – 4th, 5th & 6th September 2026
  Basingstoke Sports & Social Club, May's Bounty Cricket Ground, Fairfields Road, Basingstoke, RG21 3DR
  Free entrance. Just the dates for now but last year we said: 12:00 – 23:00 Friday & Saturday, 12:00 – 16:00 Sunday. Over 30 real ales, craft beers & ciders. Food available until 9pm. Entertainment Saturday evening. Run by CAMRA North Hampshire Branch.
   
• Weymouth Octoberfest – 16th & 17th October 2026
  Weymouth Pavilion Ocean Room, The Esplanade, Weymouth, Dorset, DT4 8ED
  Expected session times 11:00 – 16:00 & 18:30 – 23:30 both days. Ticketing TBA but on sale 1st August. Lunchtime sessions are 'quiet', evening sessions have live music. Entrance by advance ticket only. Run by West Dorset CAMRA.
   
• 38th Swindon Beer Festival – 22nd, 23rd & 24th October 2026
  Steam Museum, Fire Fly Ave, Swindon SN2 2EY
  Just the dates so far. Last year we said: Thursday 18:00 – 23:00; Friday 11:00 – 16:00 & 18:00 – 23:00; Saturday 11:00 - 19:00. Run by Swindon & North Wiltshire CAMRA.
   
• 20th Redhill Beer Festival – 29th, 30th & 31st October 2026
  Merstham Village Hall, Station Road North, Merstham, RH1 3ED
  12:00 – 22:30 Thursday & Friday; 12:00 – 18:00 Saturday. Ticketing TBA. Run by East & Mid Surrey CAMRA.
   
• 27th Poole Beer Festival – 30th & 31st October 2026
  St Aldhelms Centre, Poole Road, Branksome BH12 1AD
  11:00 – 15:30 & 18:30 – 23:00 both days. Ticketing details TBA but on sale 1st September. Run by East Dorset CAMRA.
   

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.