The Great British Beer Festival Is First Held

In 1977, the Campaign for Real Ale held the first event formally known as the Great British Beer Festival at Alexandra Palace in London. It followed CAMRA’s successful national beer exhibition at Covent Garden in 1975, where strong public demand had demonstrated that a large audience existed for traditional cask-conditioned beer. Organized largely by volunteers, the Great British Beer Festival developed into CAMRA’s flagship public event. It allowed drinkers to compare beers from many breweries in one place and turned the preservation of cask ale into a highly visible form of consumer participation. The festival later became closely associated with the Champion Beer of Britain competition and helped establish the volunteer-run tasting festival as a defining institution of British beer culture.