Kmflett's Blog

Not the Peterborough beer festival(reprise)

On several days this week in more or less any summer in recent years I’d be found in Peterborough.

The August Bank Holiday week is usually the Peterborough beer festival, organised by CAMRA.

It’s the second largest beer festival in the UK, although as my account of the 2018 festival below suggests it’s not one that attracts the attention of most of the beer cognoscenti.

This year’s event was cancelled (for the second year running) and I’m not in Peterborough. The local CAMRA branch have organised a city wide real-ale trail I note for those in the area and the Stoneworks has an EU v US tap takeover.

Some things have changed since 2018. Beavertown and Magic Rock have been swallowed by Big Beer and Purely Pickled Eggs is very sadly no more.

It can only be hoped that Peteborough Beer Festival is back in 2022 although like so much during the pandemic it may be that the world has moved on from the blockbuster festival. Pub based festivals, more locally based are currently much in vogue

Peterborough Beer Festival 2018: combined & uneven development

I was at the Peterborough Beer Festival this week on Tuesday and Thursday. Held in tents on land by the river Nene in the city centre it is one of the biggest UK beer festivals and it has been going for over 40 years.

It is also as I’ve written before a rather unfashionable event amongst those who write about beer (though certainly not amongst the large numbers who attend). You can find much comment about the Great British Beer Festival held earlier in August (i.e I’m not going, I’m going but there are issues; actually there were some very good beers etc etc) but usually little or nothing about Peterborough.

So let me say straight away, there aren’t really that many beards and you’ll struggle to find people looking at their smartphones. Hackney it isn’t.

There are around 350 cask beers and there the picture is perhaps a little mixed. I tried and enjoyed a few (in thirds) but a whacky name, while it may be fine in a local pub, tells me nothing about the beer and CAMRA’s classification system and programme notes don’t always help as much as they might.

Still Peterborough is a place for combined and uneven development so the now officially named key-keg bar had 45 beers with 13 on at any one time. It seemed to be doing well. You know beers like Cloudwater, Track, Beavertown, Magic Rock, those names so familiar to CAMRA festivals…

There is ample seating and a decent range of food (including of course the incomparable Purely Pickled Eggs) and if you can’t find beers to enjoy at Peterborough one wonders if you really do enjoy beer.

There is also a gin bar which seemed to be popular (I like malt whisky) and the whole event is about 10 minutes-walk from the train station. If you are in Peterborough there is a very good craft beer bar, Stoneworks, right in the centre near the Cathedral and an equally good micro-pub, the Bumble Inn on the short walk from the station to the centre.

The beer festival is open all day on Friday and Saturday. You’ll enjoy the beer and also find out what people are up to outside of London..(good news, it’s not unpleasant)