In celebration of the Great British (village) beer festival

In which I head merrily along to a village beer festival that ticks all the boxes

I had a tremendous weekend at Burghfest. Every time I get to go to an event like that that I’ve not been part of I come away buzzing and enthusiastic for my own.

Little ideas here and there. Seeing what goes on, but more importantly, I think maybe volunteer-run things might just be the best thing about this country.

I do appreciate it’s not exactly a packed field right now.

Burghfest raises money for Thames Valley Air Ambulance, Datchet Beer Festival in October puts all its profits into local scouting and the one I run sends a significant bag of swag to Bracknell Rugby Club.

The sheer number of volunteers from the village who put themselves out for Burghfest - and I do feel a pang of guilt about not jumping in head first given that I live here.

We had a lovely family day on Friday, culminating in my wife, mum and dad enjoying a couple of ports to finish the evening. Saturday was child-free, I ran the Meet The Brewer session which became more of a ‘Brewers Social’ and probably needs some more thought. When that closed at 2pm it was all about immersing in the event. Which I really did.

While we’re at it, I think you’d have to drive an awful long way to find a beer festival with a better musical output than Burghfest. The setup really is sensational and the level of talent on show is quite incredible.

Highlights for me were Majestix (short clip below), The Small Strings, The Corsairs (a lot of punk double bass fun), Myld Stallions whose lead singer had a voice that blew everyone away, and yes I really mean this, Sonic Weapon.

Back to my earlier thought though, volunteer run events are hard work when you’re on the other side of the bar, but it makes a massive difference when you know every penny you spend is going toward something, the people you are being served or helped by are enthusiastic and passionate about the event and businesses involved are almost always sole traders or doing their bit for a community.

Maybe we should all stop going to mass corporate events, paying £7 for a pint of Greene King (I’m still angry at you The Oval) and get stuck into what’s on our doorstep.

A few ideas I picked up from Burghfest

Name stickers - white labels with your name scribbled on for volunteers. I tried this at Bracknell this year but it didn’t really happen - I maintain it as being a good idea.

Branded bar mats - super simple but a great one for a sponsor. They’re about £20 each and would work for multiple years. These ones at Burghfest came from bagsoflove.co.uk

A big skip - we nicked this idea a few years ago. But asking a local skip company to drop a proper branded skip on your site for the day and then collect is a really good way of sorting your rubbish issues. Burghfest uses J.Mould, and Bracknell uses Shorts.

Beer of the festival

I pretty much stuck to stouts and porters, trying all the ones on offer. I might not have the best coverage of what was available in this instance, but I’m sure Paul Smithson can help me with that in the comments.

A mention though for John’s London Porter by Elusive Brewing and John Kellett, BlackLight Black IPA by Mysterious Brewing and my favourite non-stout which was Neo Noise from Siren Craft Brew, a Hazy Pale Ale.

(I’ve popped links in for these beers so hopefully you’ll be able to find them).

Coming up: In a week’s time I’ll bring you an Oktoberfest Special so if you’d like to get a bit of publicity drop me a message. After that, the pub proving the Viz flat roof theory very very wrong.