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 the repeat events since then have been equally so.

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!

Covid-19

Please note that the number of CAMRA beer festivals are limited, but the full list of those within 50 miles of our branch are listed below. Please check the individual websites for details. Our research of Non-CAMRA festivals has been rather knocked out of kilter and those below are the ones we know of but there may be many more that have restarted. 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

• Maidenhead Beer & Cider Festival – 8th & 9th July 2022
  NMCC Sports Bar, Summerleaze Park, off Summerleaze Road, Maidenhead, Berks, SL6 8SP
  12:00 – 23:00 Friday & Saturday, tickets £4 in advance, £5 on door. Run by Slough, Windsor & Maidenhead CAMRA
   
• Salisbury Beerex XL (40th) 2022 – 8th & 9th July 2022
  Salisbury Arts Centre, Bedwin Street, Salisbury SP1 3UT
  Still in the planning stage so just the dates and times for now. Fri 18:30 – 23:00; Sat 11:00 – 15:30 & 18:30 – 23:00. Run by Salisbury & South Wiltshire CAMRA in association with Salisbury Arts Centre & Rotary COGS.
   
• 23rd Devizes Beer Festival – 23rd July 2022
  The Wharf, Devizes, Wiltshire SN10 1EB
  One day only 11:30 – 22:00. Tickets £15 in advance only. Includes £5 beer tokens, plus more for CAMRA members. Mainly an open air festival, with some under canvas, beside Kennet & Avon Canal; Over 100 real ales plus cider and food also available. Family orientated, with live music. Run by Devizes CAMRA.
   
• Great British Beer Festival – 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th August 2022
  Olympia, London.
  50,000 people expected at the biggest real ale festival in the world – run by volunteers from all CAMRA branches. Over 1000 real ales, craft beers, ciders and perries. Tickets on sale now.
   
• 12th Hampshire OctoberFest – 16th & 17th September 2022
  Basingstoke Cricket & Sports Ground, Fairfields Rd, Basingstoke RG21 3DR
  Friday 15:00 – 24:00; Saturday 12:00 – 24:00; Tickets Friday & Saturday £18.45 in advance. Group discounts (6 tickets for the price of 5) available until 31st July. North Hampshire CAMRA organises the bar and beer part, others, including Destination Basingstoke, do the rest.
   
• Weymouth Octoberfest – 7th & 8th October 2022
  Weymouth Pavilion Ocean Room, The Esplanade, Weymouth, Dorset, DT4 8ED
  Holding notice, details to be confirmed. These were the 2019 details: 11:00 – 16:00 & 18:00 – 23:30 both days. Tickets £10 each session, includes one pint ale or cider. Run by West 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.