19 March 2018: Festival Programme available; advance sale period ends

The Festival Programme is now available for download (2.4Mb, 20 page PDF, opens in new window; note: final version uploaded 21 March 2018) and contains tasting notes for our provisional beer list and details of the ciders and perries ordered.

Advance sales ended late last week: any remaining tickets (plus the 50 per session that we held back) will go on sale on the door for each session.

Finally, this website will not be updated over the Festival weekend (the webmaster will be working away): please keep an eye on our Twitter feed and Facebook for any updates (including any beer substitutions).

12 March 2018: Provisional beer list now online

Our provisional beer list is now online to whet your appetities, with 71 different Sussex beers - plus another round 100 from further afield - currently lined up. Remember: it's best not to pin your hopes on anything in particular, as substitutions and cancellations can happen right up until the Festival itself.

28 February: Argus article and ticket availability

Thanks to Brighton's local daily paper, The Argus, for this great article on the festival (link opens in new page, subject to Argus cookie acceptance and working as at 28 February 2018).

Please also remember to keep an eye on our ticket availabiliy matrix on our Tickets page: we update this when we get updates from our outlets (and when the webmaster is not working away or in Germany watching football), so you may wish to contact your outlet of choice directly before embarking on a long journey specifically for tickets (although they do all also sell excellent ale!).

18 January: various updates

Courtesy of Ursula, we now have a map of the bus stops around the Racecourse on our Venue page, and we hope to bring you details of the shuttle pick-up point at Brighton Station shortly.

We've also updated the Ticket Outlets page with info for the Tower, the Eagle and reinstated the Brewery Shades, as well as corrected a glitch on the session times listed on our Tickets page. Remember: tickets go on sale on Monday 22 January (when your webmaster is on holiday, so don't expect another reminder beforehand!).

Finally, this year's poster is now online (click on the thumbnail for a full size version).

11 January 2018: New festival artwork for 2018

Our regular festival artist Richard Stone has outdone himself again with a striking new racehorse-themed logo. You can see it on the left of each page, and also look back over each of Richard's excellent designs from 2010 to date in our Festival Artwork gallery.

8 January 2018: Volunteer form now available

The volunteer form has now been updated: please complete and return this to our new staffing email address by 31 January so we can plan (and get a t-shirt to fit you).

3 January 2018: Press release

We are off again for the Sussex CAMRA Branches 2018 Festival. The 28th Sussex Beer & Cider Festival will be at Brighton Racecourse, Freshfield Road, Brighton BN2 9XZ from Thursday 22 to Saturday 24 March 2018.

To show case the 60 breweries in the county, we are pleased to reinstate the ever popular Sussex Bar.

A variety of food will also be on sale, including vegetarian, vegan options and soft drinks.

This year, all the beer will be cooled throughout the festival. This means that it should be in the same excellent condition on the Saturday evening as it is when we open on Thursday.

Opening times and prices:

• Thursday 5pm-10pm £5
• Friday lunch 11am-3pm £6
• Friday evening 5pm-10pm £8
• Saturday 11am-7pm* £5, 3.30pm--7pm* £2.50 **
  (**on door only & with NUS card) *or until the beer runs out

If you are lucky enough to look under 25 years old, please bring photo ID and note that you must be over 18 to gain admission. A minimum of 50 tickets for each session will be available on the door, 20 minutes after the start of each session (so those who buy their tickets in advance will enter the venue first). The ticket price includes a souvenir glass and programme. Card-carrying CAMRA members can also obtain beer tokens worth £2 at the CAMRA membership stand. If you join CAMRA on the day, you will also receive £2 beer tokens and a copy of the Good Beer Guide. Please bear in mind that the popular beers sell very quickly, and, as it takes at least 48 hours for beers to settle, cannot be replaced.

Advance tickets will be available from Monday 24 January to Friday 18 March from the following outlets: Evening Star, Brighton; Gardener’s Arms, Brewers Arms Lewes; Duke of Wellington, Shoreham-by-Sea; Selden Arms, Worthing; and Beer Essentials, Horsham; Eagle,Eastbourne; Tower,St.Leonards. For postal sales,please state which session(s) you require and enclose a 9x4 SAE with your cheque, made payable to “Sussex CAMRA Beer & Cider Festival” and send to SBB&CF Ticket Sales, 16 Connell Drive, Woodingdean, Brighton, BN2 6RT. No refunds will be processed after 14 March 2017.

All bars will operate a token system. Token refunds will be given for whole £’s only and before ‘time’ is called at the bar. Surplus tokens may be deposited in the charity box and will be passed on to our festival charity, Sussex Heart.

The number 2 and 22 buses pass the venue and there will be a shuttle bus to and from Brighton train station. The venue is fully wheelchair accessible.

For more information, see the festival website www.sussexbeerfestival.co.uk.
If you would like to volunteer to work at the festival and have not done so in the past, please keep an eye on this page.

Peter Mitchell
Publicity Officer for Sussex Beer & Cider Festival
January 2018

July 2017: Next year's festival announced...

We are back at Brighton Racecourse for the 28th festival on 22-24 March 2018. Put the dates in your diary now!