18 June 2015: Beers & Ciders of the festival

Moving to a new venue after 24 years was always going to present unexpected difficulties but, thanks to all the volunteers, the 25th festival worked well.

The total number of punters through the door was just over 3,000 which, although being a much smaller venue, was encouraging.

The Beer of the Festival was Ayr Brewing Company’s Rabbie’s Porter. The Bev Robbins Award for the Best Sussex Beer was Benchmark IPA brewed by a brand new brewery UnBarred (based in Hove).

Cider of the Festival was Hecks Brown’s Apple from Somerset and Perry of the Festival was Gregg’s Pit Blakeney based in Herefordshire.

The festival charity Blind Veterans UK raised £745.80 in unused tokens and £315.46 in cash.

Thanks go to ALL the volunteers who worked at the Corn Exchange, especially the many from outside of Sussex.

Peter Mitchell & John Kirkland

Joint Festival Organisers, May 2015

11 March 2015: Ticket update and reminder of web inactivity

We've updated our ticket matrix with known availability - don't panic if you haven't bought the tickets you need yet, as some are held back for walk-up sales at each session (although bear in mind Friday is always popular!).

Also, there's a reminder that there will be less opportunity for the website to be updated with late beer changes this year (due to the webmaster's normal job getting in the way) and there will be no 'live' updates this year (due to the webmaster's holiday).

5 March 2015: CIder list online, additional updates

Details of our ciders and perries are now online. We've also updated details of our 2015 charity, plus our First Time Visitor guide for our new venue. Finally, we continue to finesse our beer list, with some updated beer names and ABVs.

1 March 2015: Provisional beer list online

A provisional beer list (as at 28 Feb 2015, slightly revised from the first list that some may have seen on email lists) is now online.

Please note that, unlike the previous two years, we will not be able to update this website or the mobile site during the festival (as the webmaster will be in Germany), however we do hope to bring you a new festival Twitterer very shortly.

30 January 2015: Ticket update

We have a clearer picture of the first 10 days of ticket sales, with Friday night's advance tickets already gone.

A wee reminder that one of our pub outlets - the Selden Arms in Worthing - is having its annual beer festival this weekend, so an excellent opportunity to snap up tickets (Fri pm sold out, Fri lunch almost gone) at the same time.

27 January 2015: Friday night mail order tickets sold out

Mail order tickets for Friday night have sold out. We will update the website (time permitting, e.g. the webmaster is away this coming weekend and most weekends in February!) with more reports from mail order and our pub outlets when we get them.

16 January 2015: Staffing forms now online

The new 2015 staffing forms have been added to the website this evening.

Please note that the Staffing Officer has changed and the address previously used to receive forms (e.g. for the 2014 Festival) will no longer reach us. Anyone who has incorrectly completed and posted a 2014 form to a Brighton address will need to re-submit a new form using the new details or we will not know that you want to volunteer. Whilst we should hopefully be able to accommodate walk-up requests from volunteers known to us, it does mean that we may not have a t-shirt or transport for you.

8 January 2015: Corrections

There will be a minimum of 100 tickets (not 200) on the door for each session. The prices for Thursday and Friday lunchtime sessions is £5 (not £6 as originally stated).

5 January 2015: Ticket outlets confirmed, sales start in two weeks

The ticket outlets have now been confirmed, along with the address for mail order tickets. Please note that there will be no box office or online sales for the 2015 festival. No advance tickets will be available for the Saturday evening.

The postal address of the venue is Corn Exchange, Church Street, Brighton, BN1 1UE.

16 October 2014: Session times and prices announced

After being held at Hove Town Hall for the past 24 years, the 25th Sussex Beer & Cider Festival will be held at the Corn Exchange, Brighton on the 19th March – 21st March. To help celebrate our Silver Anniversary there will be an excellent but smaller selection than in previous years of real ales, ciders, perries and bottled beers from Britain and abroad.

The festival sessions with ticket prices are:

• Thursday lunchtime 11am – 3pm £5
• Thursday evening 5pm – 11pm £8
• Friday lunchtime 11am – 3pm £5
• Friday evening 5pm – 11pm £8
• Saturday 12pm – 10pm (or until the beer runs out if earlier) £8 (£4 after 5pm)

Advance ticket sales will start on 19th January 2015, and there will be no advance sales for the post-5pm session on Saturday.

Tickets for the festival always sell very quickly, therefore to avoid disappointment on the day it is advisable to buy tickets for all the sessions; however a minimum of 100 tickets for each session will be available for purchase on the door.

The ticket price includes a festival programme and a souvenir glass. CAMRA members will receive £2 worth of beer tokens on production of their membership card.

Peter Mitchell & John Kirkland
Joint Festival Organisers, October 2015