Weymouth Octoberfest is returning to the town’s Pavilion Ocean Room, providing the perfect location for seaside views, and with seating for more than 300 people.
Festival chairman Adrian Carey. Photograph: Rich Gabe
The event will take place on Friday and Saturday, 3rd and 4th October, split into two sessions per day.
Organisers of the event, West Dorset Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), are delighted by ticket sales so far and are warning of low ticket availability for lunchtime sessions.
As always, there is a theme to the beer selection, and this year it’s the turn of East Anglia to be highlighted. Customers can expect to be able to sample more than 55 cask ales from Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk breweries, along with a selection of ciders. Many of the brewers and cider producers will have never been showcased in Weymouth before, and due to the logistics of East Anglia, many may never return.
Copper Street Brewery, of Dorchester, in conjunction with the Dead Brewers Society, will be the guest sponsor brewer, resurrecting six beers from long-shut breweries in East Anglia. This will give customers a once-in-a-lifetime chance to sample original recipes from breweries they will probably never have tried before.
Alex Bardswell has selected the real ciders, coming from Blue Barrel, Cromwell, and Potton Press in Cambridgeshire, Wriggers, close to the Essex/Cambridgeshire border, and Crones, Whin Hill, and Norfolk Raider from Norfolk.
“I’m really looking forward to trying the diverse range of beers from East Anglia, especially the ones that have been resurrected by Copper Street,” said festival chairman Adrian Carey.
“I would like to thank my fellow committee CAMRA members for all of their hard work put in on the lead-up to the festival, and hope all the volunteer staff and customers have a great experience.”
This year, there are offers to get extra free beer. CAMRA members automatically get a free pint on top of the pint included in their admission ticket. However, anyone producing an NUS card will be able to claim a free pint from the CAMRA stand at the festival, and on the Saturday evening session anyone with a ‘blue light card can also claim a free pint.
Also, as part of a new membership initiative, the first 20 people who join CAMRA at the festival will get £5 off their joining fee. Everyone else who joins at the festival will receive two free pints as part of their membership package.
The evening music this year will comprise two festival debuts by local acts. Dorchester acoustic duo Blue Bridge will bring their range of classic and contemporary songs on the Friday night, while young up-and-coming Weymouth raw talent The Undecided will be playing a range of indie rock covers.
More information and tickets here.
