CAMRA Press Release

The all new CAMRA Southampton Beer Festival!

We are pleased to announce details of the new features of the forthcoming CAMRA’s Southampton Beer Festival on the 23rd and 24th of June at St Mary’s Stadium (home of Southampton Football Club), and let you know where you can purchase tickets to see the changes yourself!

We have worked with local graphic designers to produce a new festival identity. Key to this has been the new logo linking Bargate, the historic entrance to the city of Southampton, with the national icon of the beer scene, the pint glass. Its strong black, orange, and white colour scheme can be seen throughout the festival, including the cover of the programme, the staff T-shirt, the entrance tickets, and the posters promoting the event.

The festival will feature up to 70 cask real ales, showcasing examples of some of the high quality beers brewed in the City of Southampton, the county of Hampshire, and the vibrant beer scene nationally. A new feature will be an exciting international bottled beer bar, provided by Southampton’s own specialist bar and brasserie, Belgium & Blues. If beer is not to your taste, we will also be featuring a range of popular ciders and perries on our cider bar.

We have teamed up with the core of Southampton’s music scene, the Frog and Frigate and The Brook, to source and feature 12 high quality local performers for the festival. Details on the bands will follow shortly. We will of course maintain our ‘quiet’ area, where you can enjoy the beer and sit and chat with your friends. The purchase of hot and cold food will be also available and as requested by customers from previous festivals, we will have a lot more seating, more space to move around (better access for all being on one floor with no steps, as well as disabled toilet facilities), and air conditioning keeping the temperature down.

The festival is lucky to coincide with the celebration of Hop Back’s 30th anniversary, who are proudly sponsoring the festival T-shirts. The Dancing Man is providing sponsorship of the festival glasses, and Southampton’s newest micro brewery, The London Road Brew House, is sponsoring the publicity. Beers from all three breweries will be showcased as part of the cask range. We will also be hosting the stalls of Oddfellows Chocolate Ltd and Olives and Things.

The festival is slightly later this year, to avoid clashing with Fathers Day (tickets for the festival could be the ideal Fathers Day gift!) on the 23rd and 24th June. The day sessions will be held between 11:30–16:00 on the Friday and Saturday afternoons, and the evening sessions 18:30–23:00 on the same days. Ticket prices have been held from previous years at £5.00 for the Friday afternoon, £10.00 for the Friday evening, and both Saturday sessions at £7.00 each. Entry includes your own festival glass and programme.

The demand for tickets is already high. Tickets can be purchased now via the website (www.southamptonbeerfestival.org.uk/2017/tickets) by email, post and online, and from the end of April at Bitter Virtue, The Guide Dog, Belgium and Blues, and the Dancing Man in Southampton, Ebenezer’s in Hythe, and the Tipsy Pig in Romsey.