Shrewsbury Beer Festival

The 32nd Shrewsbury Beer Festival has now finished. Thanks to everyone who came to the event, and we hope to see you again in 2025!

Provisional dates for the 2025 festival will be added here as soon as we have them. In the meantime, keep an eye on our Festival Facebook page for the latest information.

The 32nd Shrewsbury CAMRA Beer Festival took place from 25th to 28th September 2024 in the magnificent medieval St. Mary’s church. We had around 100 real ales again, many from Shropshire and the surrounding areas, and a good selection of ciders and perries.

Our festival venue, the Church of St Mary the Virgin, is an amazing Grade 1 listed redundant church which is now mostly used as a community resource. The tiled floors, the carved wooden ceiling and particularly the stained glass windows would each be worth a visit on their own, but combined they make a unique and spectacular setting for a beer and cider festival.

The information for the last festival, detailed below, will be left up on this page for a while for anyone that is interested. If you would like to come to the next festival, the information will also give you an idea of how the Shrewsbury Beer Festivals are run.

The 32nd Shrewsbury CAMRA Beer Festival will take place from 25th to 28th September 2024 in the magnificent medieval St. Mary’s church. We are aiming to have around 100 real ales again, many from Shropshire and the surrounding areas, and a good selection of ciders and perries. For all the latest information, please see our Festival Facebook page.

This year, you will be able to pay on the door, or buy a ticket in advance from CAMRA’s ticketing agency Tckty, by clicking here or by scanning the QR code below:

Festival planning is well underway and we have begun to select the beers, ciders, perries, rums and gins we will be offering, well over 100 in total. This year, you will be able to pay on the door, or buy a ticket in advance from CAMRA’s ticketing agency Tckty, by clicking here or by scanning the QR code below:

Our Festival venue is mostly fully accessible (there is a small area of seating which is up a couple of steps). The Church of St Mary the Virgin is an amazing Grade 1 listed redundant church which is now mostly used as a community resource. The tiled floors, the carved wooden ceiling and particularly the stained glass windows would each be worth a visit on their own, but combined they make a unique and spectacular setting for a beer and cider festival.

If you would like to volunteer to work at the festival, please download the staffing form by clicking here. You can volunteer for as long or a short a time as you want to. There are jobs for all levels of physical ability, in contact with and apart from the public, and any training needed will be given. We start to set up the festival on Friday 20^th September, and finish packing away on Monday 30th. You will be welcome if you can help us on any day.

Our main sponsor for 2024 will once again be Salopian Brewery, whose support is very much appreciated. However, there are still many other opportunities for sponsorship and advertising linked to the festival. Sponsorship of an individual beer or cider starts at £50 for businesses, but only £20 for a private individual. Advertising in the programme starts at £25. Please contact our Sponsorship Manager, Robert Green, at green@arrolgreen.com to discuss your needs.

The 32nd Shrewsbury CAMRA Beer Festival will take place from 25th to 28th September 2024 in the magnificent medieval St. Mary’s church. We are aiming to have around 100 real ales again, many from Shropshire and the surrounding areas, and a good selection of ciders and perries. Salopian Brewery has kindly offered to be our main festival sponsor again.

As we are still in the early stages of planning, please check back here nearer the time for more details. Our festival Facebook page is also worth keeping an eye on for the latest information.

If you are interested in helping to organise or run the festival, the Festival Working Party meetings have started again and you are welcome to come along. Please see the What’s On page for details of when they are.

The 32nd Shrewsbury CAMRA Beer Festival in 2024 will take place from 25th to 28th September 2024 in the magnificent medieval St. Mary’s church. The festival will be sponsored this year by Salopian Brewing Co. Ltd., one of our superb local breweries who will have their own dedicated bar at the festival. We will have around 100 real ales, many from Shropshire and the surrounding areas, and around 16 ciders and perries. Also available will be a selection of gin and rum for those that like something different. For more details and answers to frequently asked questions, please see below.

Location

The festival will be at St. Mary’s Church (full name is the Church of St. Mary the Virgin). This is located on St. Mary’s Street, just beyond the top of the pedestrianised Pride Hill in Shrewsbury town centre. The postcode of the church is SY1 1DX.

It’s about 5 minutes or so walk up Castle Gates and Castle Street from the train and bus stations, and there are various car parks around the town centre, between 5 and 15 minutes walk away. Please note that there is no car park at the church itself.

Opening Times

The 2024 festival will be open on the following days:

Wednesday 25th September from 11:00 to 22:30

Thursday 26th September from 11:00 to 22:30

Friday 27th September from 11:00 to 22:30

Saturday 28th September from 11:00 to 21:00 (or until the beer runs out)

Tickets

Entrance fees will be set nearer the time but it’s likely that we will have an entrance package again as this seems to have worked well for the last couple of festivals.

The entrance package for the last festival included entrance fee (for non-CAMRA members), beer glass deposit, some beer tokens and a festival programme.

Entry for non-CAMRA members will be £12, which includes a £3 entrance fee, £3 refundable souvenir glass deposit, 9 beer tokens (enough for your first 3 half pints), and a programme.

Entry for CAMRA members will be £9, which includes free entrance fee, £3 refundable souvenir glass deposit, 9 beer tokens (enough for your first 3 half pints), and a programme.

Extra tokens are available singly or in blocks and can be bought with card or cash from inside the festival.

If you join CAMRA on the day, you will be eligible for the discounted entry, and you will get a further 4 free half pints! Membership starts at £22 if you are under 26, £30.50 for older people. Joint memberships are available for an extra £8. As benefits include £30 of money-off vouchers in selected pubs and discounts in others, it’s a really good deal! More information on the benefits of CAMRA membership is available here. Detailed information on membership prices is available here.

Tickets for the festival can be purchased at the entrance when you arrive, or in advance from Tckty, CAMRA’s online ticket booking system.

To purchase advance tickets, either click here to go to Tckty, or use your mobile device’s camera to scan the 3D barcode, which will open up the Tckty website in your web browser.

On Tckty, single day tickets and multi-day “season” tickets are available.

Beers and Ciders

The full list of beers, ciders and perries for the 2024 festival will not be available until a week before the festival starts. However, you can look at what was available at the last festival to give you an idea of the types of beers and ciders we offer. Please click on the links below:

The full list of beers, ciders and perries for the 2024 festival is now available to view using the links below.

Shrewsbury CAMRA Beer Festival 2023 Beer List

Shrewsbury CAMRA Beer Festival 2023 Ciders and Perries List

Shrewsbury CAMRA Beer Festival 2024 Beer List

Shrewsbury CAMRA Beer Festival 2024 Cider and Perry List

For non-beer drinkers, we will have a good selection of craft gins and country wines.

Other Information

More detailed information on prices, food, accessibility, etc. will be available closer to the festival starting. Please check back here then.

Other Information

Accessibility

The whole beer festival area in St. Mary’s Church is accessible in a wheelchair. There are no toilets inside the church, but we hire two wheelchair accessible units alongside the other temporary toilets, which are kept close to the main entrance.

If you are coming by vehicle with a carer, if you let us have the registration details and when you are coming, we will do our best to reserve a nearby parking space.

If you need a large print version of the beer list, just let us know when you intend to arrive. If you have any further questions or special needs, please contact us using the General Enquiries form.

Beer Glasses

Everyone will be given a half-pint commemorative glass when first entering the festival, with a deposit paid as part of the entrance fee. The glass can be taken home afterwards as a souvenir, or handed in when leaving to get the £3 deposit back. For people who are leaving the festival for a short while but planning to come back later that day, we can store your glass at reception, so you can pick it up again when you come back.

The glass will have 1/3 of a pint marked on it, so beer can be purchased in 1/3 or 1/2 pint measures.

Charities

We are consistently amazed by the generosity of our members and other attendees. This year, we will be collecting for three main charities:

The Churches Conservation Trust is the charity which runs St Mary’s. Money we collect will go to refurbishing the wonderful stained glass and in particular repairing vandalism to a window in the south wall

The Poppy Appeal really needs no introduction, except to say that the Festival has a long-standing relationship with the Shropshire branch of this amazing support mechanism for those who have served their country and now need some extra help

Team Cleo is a local feeder charity for The Brain Tumour Charity. Team Cleo was set up by a couple of Shrewsbury and West Shropshire CAMRA members following the death of their daughter and raises funds in her name for research and support

You can donate cash, unused drinks tokens or your glass refund to the charities on the exit desk. There will be clearly marked donation points for each.

In addition, Team Cleo and The Churches Conservation Trust will each have a beer dedicated to them, bought and donated by Branch members. The Poppy Appeal will have volunteers selling poppies and merchandise during some sessions of the festival.

We also run a Tombola every festival, and this year we are donating 50% of the takings to the Severn Hospice.

Children

Parents with children are welcome in the festival until 6pm each night. Children will not be allowed to approach the bars apart from the Drivers’ Bar which will be dispensing soft drinks. Parents are asked to control their children for the safety of the children themselves and that of other customers.

Dogs

Well behaved dogs are welcome at the beer festival. However, after 6pm on Friday and 4pm on Saturday, the venue can get very crowded and may not be an ideal environment for some dogs. At these times, there is usually a bit more space around the edges and also in the back of the church where the seating area is. Care will be needed in negotiating the crowds in the main hall on the way in or out.

Owners are expected to assess whether the density of the crowd in the venue is suitable for their dogs, for the safety of both the dogs and of other customers.

Drink Prices

Prices for beer and cider are being kept the same as they were for last year’s festival in 2023. Gin prices will actually be lower than last year.

Each third of a pint of “normal” strength beer or cider costs two tokens (equivalent to £1.40). So a half pint is three tokens (equivalent to £2.10), making a full pint cost equivalent to £4.20.

For gin drinkers, a single gin with a mixer will be 6 tokens (equivalent to £4.20), and a double will be 9 tokens (equivalent to £6.30).

Additional tokens are 70p each and are on sale at a kiosk between the Salopian sponsors bar and the cider bar. Payment is by cash or card. You can buy as many or as few tokens as you like, and if you buy too many you can get a refund on exit.

Food

Indian street food and rolls with various fillings will be available to purchase at the festival.

You can bring your own sandwiches or finger food into the festival but we have no cutlery, so please don’t bring anything that needs any dining utensils. Also, please don’t bring food that generates a lot of waste such as pizzas, or picnic hampers that take up a lot of room.

Others like to leave the festival and go into Shrewsbury town centre to get a meal or a snack. You just need to show your festival wristband to get back in to the festival afterwards. You can come and go as often as you like during the day that you’ve paid for. Beer glasses can be stored for you at reception, so you can pick them up again when coming back in.

Gluten-Free Beer

Some of the real ales at the festival will be gluten-free. These are marked with a “GF” in the Style column of the beer list. This year’s festival beer list, will be published about a week before the festival starts, so check back here then.

Non-Drinkers

For those who don’t want any alcoholic drinks, and also for those that maybe need a brief break from the beer, we will have a small range of soft drinks that will be available at the Drivers’ bar.

If you are a not going to be drinking anything alcoholic because you are driving other drinkers home afterwards, you can get a special coloured wristband on entry which shows that you are a “designated driver”. This will enable you to get free soft drinks from the Drivers’ bar.

Volunteering

If anyone would like to help out at the next Shrewsbury Beer Festival, either with the setting up beforehand, assisting at the festival itself, or packing up afterwards, please download and complete the spreadsheet below to let us know your availability. Clicking on the link should automatically download the spreadsheet and put it in your default Downloads folder on your computer.

2024 Staffing Worksheet Download

Completed forms should be sent to Dave as soon as possible, so that the staff rota can be organised. His contact details are on the form. Thank you.

For more information on the type of help we need at the festival, please see the Beer Festival section on the Getting Involved page. You don’t have to be a CAMRA member, or to have worked at beer festivals before, to help. Any assistance you can give will be greatly appreciated.