CAMRA Beer Festivals 2026: The Complete Guide

Updated September 2026 · by Rich, founder of Unhopped

A CAMRA beer festival is the best day out in British beer — hundreds of cask ales served straight from the barrel, run by volunteers, in everything from cathedrals to cricket grounds. Here’s everything you need to know for 2026, whether it’s your first festival or your fiftieth.

CAMRA beer festivals 2026: the calendar

A guide to major CAMRA (and a few notable non-CAMRA) festivals across 2026. There are far more than we can list — over 100 a year — so treat this as the highlights, and always confirm dates on the festival’s own page before travelling, as they can change.

Spring & Summer

Late August — the flagship month

September

October & beyond

Is the Great British Beer Festival happening in 2026?

No. In September 2025 CAMRA announced that both the Great British Beer Festival (GBBF) and its winter counterpart are cancelled for 2026. The 2025 event had moved from its long-standing London home at Olympia to Birmingham’s NEC, and CAMRA’s chairman was candid that it didn’t draw enough visitors to cover rising costs — venue hire, volunteer accommodation, and the beer itself. The language used was ‘paused’ rather than gone for good, so it may return in future.

For 2026 that means there’s no single national flagship — but the regional festivals more than fill the gap. The Peterborough Beer Festival (25–29 August) steps up as CAMRA’s largest event of the year, and honestly, a tour of the regionals is a better way to see British beer than one big hall ever was.

How a CAMRA beer festival works

If you’ve never been, the format is simple once you know it — here’s the whole thing in four steps:

Entry & free member access

CAMRA members get in free at managed festivals in 2026 — show your membership card (physical or the digital card in the app) at the door. Some festivals ask members to book a free advance ticket to manage numbers, so check the specific event’s page. Non-members typically pay around £4–13, which usually includes a souvenir glass, a programme and sometimes a few beer tokens. Joining costs from about £34 (with £5 off using code ALE71), so if you’re going to more than one or two festivals, membership pays for itself.

Glasses, tokens & measures

You drink from a souvenir festival glass, hired or bought on the way in and lined at the third, half and pint — CAMRA campaigns for a full measure, so the lines matter. Ordering by the third or half is the smart move: you get to try far more beers across the day. Most festivals run on tokens (bought at a token desk) or increasingly card; unused tokens are usually refundable at the end, or you can donate them to the festival charity.

The beer — and drinking it well

Real ale is cask-conditioned and served cool, not warm (around 11–13°C) and not fizzy-cold like lager. A festival is the best place on earth to explore it. Our tasting advice: start light and go dark — work from pale ales and bitters up to porters and stouts, so the big flavours don’t blow out your palate early. Pace yourself, drink water between beers, eat something, and jot down favourites — after ten thirds, the names blur.

If you’re driving or not drinking

Festivals look after designated drivers — tell the bar and you’ll usually get free soft drinks and sometimes a special wristband. This is close to our heart: the alcohol-free scene is growing, and while cask festivals are still overwhelmingly full-strength, more now offer low- and no-alcohol options. If you’re drinking AF, check the bar list in advance, and see our honest take on CAMRA membership if you don’t drink alcohol.

How to find a CAMRA beer festival near you

Three reliable ways to find your next festival: CAMRA’s national events listing at camra.org.uk/events is the definitive, regularly-updated source and covers every festival including small local ones; your local CAMRA branch website has the detail on events in your area; and the CAMRA app (with the WhatPub tool) helps you find festivals and real-ale pubs wherever you are. For the bigger events, book any free member tickets early — popular sessions fill up.

Why CAMRA festivals are worth your time

More than 250,000 people attend CAMRA festivals each year, pouring somewhere around 850,000 pints of real ale, cider and perry. They’re run almost entirely by volunteers, they’re where the annual Champion Beer of Britain is crowned, and they range from the intimate (a village church with 40 ales) to the vast (Peterborough’s riverside marquees). Whatever the size, the character is the same: friendly, unpretentious, and built around beer made the traditional way. If you care about British brewing — or just want a genuinely good day out — there’s nothing else quite like them.

Want to go deeper on CAMRA itself? Read whether membership is worth it, what’s in the £30 voucher book, or grab £5 off joining with code ALE71.

CAMRA beer festivals: frequently asked questions