News: CAMRA pulls national beer festivals, Magna to miss out
CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale) has taken the decision to cancel its Great British Beer Festivals in 2026. Rotherham was due to host the winter edition again in February.
In 2024, Rothbiz reported that problems with a Bradford venue had seen organisers searching for a suitable alternative venue with CAMRA settling on the Magna Science Adventure Centre for the Great British Beer Festival Winter (GBBF Winter).
An increase in costs and a lack of visitors has also put pay to the Great British Beer Festival (GBBF), an event which dates back to 1975.
CAMRA is an independent voluntary consumer organisation headquartered in St Albans, which promotes real ale, cider and perry and traditional British pubs and clubs.
Writing to its members, Ash Corbett-Collins, CAMRA Chairman said that the organisation's finances "painted a stark picture" with budget shortfalls caused by a range of compounding issues.
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The GBBF was not held during the COVID lockdown and due to venue problems in 2024. The event was moved out of London to the NEC in Birmingham in 2025. Magna in Rotherham, synonymous in recent years with the Magna Real Ale Festival, stepped in at relatively short notice to host the winter version of the CAMRA event which has previously been hosted in Norwich, Manchester, Derby and Burton-on-Trent.
Shortly after this year's event, Rotherham's CAMRA branch confirmed that GBBF Winter would return to Magna for 2026, due to take place between February 11 - 14.
Corbett-Collins explained to members that: "The Great British Beer Festival and its Winter counterpart did not attract enough visitors to cover the cost of holding them, resulting in a substantial loss.
"Our membership figures – like many other organisations – are simply not growing. The hard truth is we are unlikely to return to pre-2020 levels.
"Our festivals are getting more expensive to hold, with fewer affordable venues.
"The cost of running a membership organisation and business is also increasing. As a result, we will not be holding either of our Great British Beer Festivals in 2026.
"In the simplest of terms, we did not get enough people through the doors to cover costs such as hiring the venue, accommodation for volunteers and buying beer, cider and perry. We are exploring why these events made a loss and identifying lessons learned. Other CAMRA festivals will continue to be assessed through our usual processes to minimise the risk of loss."
CAMRA website
Magna website
Images: CAMRA
In 2024, Rothbiz reported that problems with a Bradford venue had seen organisers searching for a suitable alternative venue with CAMRA settling on the Magna Science Adventure Centre for the Great British Beer Festival Winter (GBBF Winter).
An increase in costs and a lack of visitors has also put pay to the Great British Beer Festival (GBBF), an event which dates back to 1975.
CAMRA is an independent voluntary consumer organisation headquartered in St Albans, which promotes real ale, cider and perry and traditional British pubs and clubs.
Writing to its members, Ash Corbett-Collins, CAMRA Chairman said that the organisation's finances "painted a stark picture" with budget shortfalls caused by a range of compounding issues.
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The GBBF was not held during the COVID lockdown and due to venue problems in 2024. The event was moved out of London to the NEC in Birmingham in 2025. Magna in Rotherham, synonymous in recent years with the Magna Real Ale Festival, stepped in at relatively short notice to host the winter version of the CAMRA event which has previously been hosted in Norwich, Manchester, Derby and Burton-on-Trent.
Shortly after this year's event, Rotherham's CAMRA branch confirmed that GBBF Winter would return to Magna for 2026, due to take place between February 11 - 14.
Corbett-Collins explained to members that: "The Great British Beer Festival and its Winter counterpart did not attract enough visitors to cover the cost of holding them, resulting in a substantial loss.
"Our membership figures – like many other organisations – are simply not growing. The hard truth is we are unlikely to return to pre-2020 levels.
"Our festivals are getting more expensive to hold, with fewer affordable venues.
"The cost of running a membership organisation and business is also increasing. As a result, we will not be holding either of our Great British Beer Festivals in 2026.
"In the simplest of terms, we did not get enough people through the doors to cover costs such as hiring the venue, accommodation for volunteers and buying beer, cider and perry. We are exploring why these events made a loss and identifying lessons learned. Other CAMRA festivals will continue to be assessed through our usual processes to minimise the risk of loss."
CAMRA website
Magna website
Images: CAMRA
2 comments:
There was a GBBF at Olympia in 2022 and 2023. It was only the 2020 and 2021 events that were skipped due to Covid. 2024 was also missed due to availability of Olympia and an agreement was not in place for another venue in time.
Cheers. I've updated the article.
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