25th April 2006 (& 19th May 2006)

NOTICE TO FESTIVAL VOLUNTEERS who were not at the review meeting on the 12th April - if you are interested in going on the coach trip on 27th May to present the 'Beer of the Festival' certificate to the Whitstable Brewery (Nr Maidstone, Kent) on Saturday 27th May, you've now unfortunately missed out as there's no room left on the bus! Don't worry - you'll be able to read all about on here later...

9th April 2006

Fast on the heels of our last update, here's the 2006 Festival Organiser's own report on the Festival. And a quick reminder to everyone who helped out - the informal review and social is this coming Wednesday (12th April) at The Romans in Southwick.

8th April 2006

It's a photo frenzy! 3 more galleries, with a total of 89 pics, have been added to our Photo Gallery page thanks to Ken Paris, Peter Betteridge and the Richard Vobes Show. We've also received our first review of the 2006 festival, courtesy of John Simpson.

3rd April 2006

Thanks to Sean Clark at Underwater Images, over 200 photographs of the 2006 Festival are now online for your viewing pleasure, and courtesy of the podcasting geniuses at the Richard Vobes Show, we can also bring you two downloadable sound clips featuring the Festival.

16th March 2006

We're all still recovering from the roaring success of last weekend's 16th Sussex Beer Festival, however here's a few tidbits of news to keep you going until the next update...

Attention all volunteers: Social (with some free beer) and a very informal review meeting arranged for Wednesday 12th April at The Romans (public bar) in Southwick. All are very welcome. Come and celebrate our success while having the opportunity to say where you think we can improve for next year.

To all our customers at the Beer & Cider Festival: I have had a few enquiries concerning purchasing our very fetching T-shirts as modelled by our staff during the Festival. I have agreed with Smart T's that we can do a supplementary order but on cost grounds, it will only be reasonable if I get at least 10 more people interested. If you are interested, can you email me on peterebs@aol.com and say what size you want and give me contact details. If I get 10 interested people, the cost will be £8 per shirt.

25th February 2006

Urgent appeal for more staff for Friday night's sell out session!

Friday night may be a sell-out, but we still need more staff for that very session .
If any CAMRA member resident in Sussex is interested in coming to work at the Festival for this session, can they please notify Mary Stephenson.

All volunteers are offered a reasonable amount of free beer, free food if they work all or the majority of a session and full or part reinbursement of transport costs. Come and join a great team of volunteers and you will be very surprised how much fun it is on the 'other' side of the bar! See here for more details.

Great news for festival-goers (including tickers and scoopers). We are proud to announce that Pitfield Brewery are now brewing in Sussex at Pete Skinner's premises in Hayward Heath and that the first beer produced at this site will be at the Festival. You will find Pitfield 1837 IPA (7.0% ABV) in the Sussex Bar

20th February 2006

Friday night's ever popular session has now completely sold out! For details of our other sessions, click here.

14th February 2006: Beer List

Provisional beer list added - tasting notes to be added in the next few weeks.

31st January 2006 - STOP PRESS

The original invitation letter contained an error - the Staff Briefing on Feb 23rd at the Lord Nelson starts at 7pm, not 8pm as mentioned. You can now download a correct copy of the letter here.

26th January 2006: COME AND WORK AT HOVE!

Mary Stephenson, our Staffing Officer, has been trying to send a letter inviting all CAMRA members in Sussex to come and work at the Sussex Beer & Cider Festival.

However, we have experienced a problem in contacting everybody, particularly our members in Western Sussex, North Sussex and South East Sussex.

We appreciate that it is more difficult for members in those areas to get to and from Hove Town Hall particularly for the evening sessions. However, it is our intention to provide transport in the evenings to take all our staff members home and as a minimum to make a contribution to transport costs to get people to the festival.

May I ask all members, to read the letter from Mary which can be found on this site, and if you can come and work at Hove to print the staffing form, complete it as necessary and to send it to Mary at the address shown by Feb 10th.

Many thanks for your help.

Peter Betteridge
Festival Organiser

January 12th 2006

Everyday It's A Gettin' Closer added to articles page

January 9th 2006 - Good news for smokers

After negotiations with Brighton & Hove Council, we are being allowed to have one area of our venue designated for smoking. The area concerned will be one of the seating areas on the ground floor near to the 'Sussex Bar'. Signs will be in place to show smokers where to go.

Press Release: 27th October 2005

BEERS, BANDS, BREWERS AND BREWING IN BRIGHTON (WELL HOVE ACTUALLY) AT THE 16th SUSSEX BEER & CIDER FESTIVAL

HOVE CENTRE, 9th - 11th March 2006

Sussex CAMRA Branches are proud to announce that the 16th Sussex Beer & Cider
Festival will be held on 9th -11th March at the Hove Centre, Hove.

The 2005 festival saw the beer nearly exhausted by mid Saturday afternoon and the ciders sold out during Friday evening. “To cope with the expected big demand at this year’s festival we will be greatly increasing the range of beers” says Peter Betteridge, Festival Organiser. “For the first time over 200 different real ales will be available and double the number of ciders and perries. Also on sale will be a large variety of British and Foreign bottled beers”.

A strong emphasis will be made on locally produced ales and the downstairs bar will be a ‘Sussex Bar’ featuring as many beers as possible from the seventeen Sussex brewers. For anyone new to drinking traditional ales there will be a Newcomers Bar, where information concerning real ales will be readily available along with some free tasting. Also downstairs there will be an exhibition plus some short presentations on the brewing process by guest Sussex brewers. Stalls selling breweriana, beer guides, glasses & T-shirts plus CAMRA membership will also be located here.

Upstairs in the Grand Hall will be the vast range of beers, ciders and perries. Musical entertainment will be held in this bar during the Friday and Saturday evening sessions. On Friday evening, the music will be provided by Karl Bashford . On Saturday evening, it will be party time again with the music provided by The Rhythm Method.

On the balcony the Festival Caterers will be providing a range of hot and cold food including vegetarian options plus tea and coffee.

Please note that Brighton & Hove City Council has placed a no smoking policy in the Town Hall. However representations are being made to see if a smoking area will be made available.

Opening times for the festival together with the ticket prices are as follows:-

• Thursday evening: 5 pm - 11 pm £3.50
• Friday lunch time: 11 am - 3 pm £3
• Friday evening: 5 pm - 11 pm £6
• Saturday lunch time: 11 am - 3 pm £3
• Saturday evening: 5 pm - 10 pm £4 (£2 concessions)

The ticket price includes a souvenir programme and for CAMRA members £2 worth of beer tokens on presentation of a membership card. On Saturday evening, a £2 concession is available for students buying tickets at the Hove Centre on production of a Students Union card.

To avoid disappointment on the day it is advisable to buy tickets in advance particularly for the very popular Friday and Saturday evening sessions. Tickets will be on sale at the Hove Centre, the Brighton Centre, Evening Star and Sir Charles Napier, Brighton; Buckingham Arms, Shoreham-by-Sea; Selden Arms, Worthing and Gardeners Arms, Lewes or by post from SBCF Ticket Sales, 14 Clover Lane, Ferring, Worthing, BN12 5LZ, Tel: 01903 504409. For postal applications, please state which session(s) are required and enclose a SAE with your payment. Cheques or postal orders should be made payable to “CAMRA Sussex Beer Festival”.

This year the festival organisers are pleased to adopt the Martlets Hospice, Hove as the festival charity.

For further information contact the Festival Organiser: 14 Clover Lane, Ferring, Worthing, West Sussex BN12 5LZ, 01903 504409 or go to: www.sussexbeerfestival.co.uk.

Peter Betteridge
Festival Organiser

September 2005

Welcome to the new website of the Sussex Beer & Cider Festival.

The next festival will be held in March 2006 at the Hove Centre in Hove Town Hall.

The first session will be on Thursday 9th March from 5.00pm through to 11.00pm (an hour later than previous years). Sessions on Friday 10th March will be 11.00am to 3.00pm and 5.00pm to 11.00pm. On Saturday 11th March, sessions will be 11.00am to 3.00pm and 5.00pm to 10.00pm. Admission charges will remain as last year, £3 for the lunchtime sessions, £3.50 for Thursday evening, £6 for Friday evening and £4 for Saturday evening

Due to the great demand at the 2005 festival, we will be increasing the amount of beer to be provided to about 200 different beers with a large number from Sussex. In fact we will be designating one of the bars in the Grand Hall as the Sussex Bar where we hope to have a range of beers from all Sussex brewers.

As a large amount of cider was also consumed, we will also be increasing the quanity of cider most of which will be locally produced.

We hope to introduce a few innovations. In order to assist our customers who are new to real ale, we will have a special bar where advice will be freely given as to the different types of beer available and there will be some free tasting.

We also hope to provide a small exhibition on brewing and will also be trying to get some of our local brewers to come and give short presentations on the subject. More on this later when more information is available.

In line with Brighton & Hove Council policy, we have been advised that all events at Hove Town Hall will be ‘Non Smoking’. There is a possibility that there could be a smoking area provided but more on this also later when firm arrangements will be in place.

Peter Betteridge
Festival Organiser