Beer festival

A beer festival is an event at which a variety of beers are available for purchase. There may be a theme, for instance beers from a particular area, or a particular brewing style such as winter ales.
Israel hosts several annual beer festivals, with the largest and oldest one being the Jerusalem Beer Festival, attracting 20,000 visitors and running for 15 years, serving 120 different kinds of beer.
Other annual beer festivals in Israel take place in the following towns and cities:
Germany has an old tradition of manifold festivals which are more than beer festivals. Usually, they are not only "beer drinking events", they are fun fairs and folk festivals. Many of them are held for centuries and have their origins in parish fairs, markets and trade fairs or other historical reasons. In some German regions, especially in South West Germany fun fairs are more connected with wine than beer festivals. It is commonly said that the largest beer festival in the world is Oktoberfest in Germany, though some argue that is actually a folk festival, not a beer festival.
Several other smaller beer festivals are held all over Germany throughout the year. The second largest beer festival in Germany and probably in Europe, is the Cannstatter Volksfest, hosted on the Cannstatter Wasen in the Bad Canstatt district of Stuttgart. It starts one week later and is very similar in character to Oktoberfest. Its popularity increases and more and more people come from around the world to visit the festival every year.
Many places have beer festivals styled as "Oktoberfests", but taken on its own the name is generally taken to mean for the Munich event. Smaller beer festivals similar to the Oktoberfest are common in Germany and take place throughout the year in most bigger German cities. Some of them go on later into the night than the Oktoberfest.
Another large genuine Bavarian festival is the Gäubodenvolksfest in Straubing. The festival is similar to Oktoberfest but it has an own history and it is not a copy of the Oktoberfest, as is the Barthelmarkt by Manching, which even dates back to Roman times. Other large festivals in Bavaria are Nürnberg Volksfeste in spring and autumn, Fürth Michaeliskirchweih (held since 12th century) and the Bergkirchweih in Erlangen, with the largest open-air beer garden in Europe.
Other beer festivals include the Hanover Schützenfest, the Freimarkt in Bremen, the Hamburger Dom, the Stuttgarter Frühlingsfest, the Cranger Funfair, the Düsseldorf Funfair. Like the Oktoberfest and the Cannstatter Volksfest, most German beer festivals are also funfairs. They are called "Volksfest" (festival for the people) and are numerous in Germany.
An emerging festival located in Berlin boasts the world's longest beer garden. The International Berlin Beer Festival hosts over 2,100 different beers from 86 countries.
British beer festivals focus on draught real ale, although bottled beers and ciders are often included. There is also an emphasis on variety as well as volume.
Festivals can be organised by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), pubs, brewers, social and sporting societies or charities. CAMRA festivals are run by volunteers under the direction of local branches and the admission fee is reduced or waived for CAMRA members. Pub festivals use professional bar staff and there is usually no entry fee.
Larger British beer festivals are usually held in large indoor venues (Kensington Olympia in the case of the GBBF). Casks of ale from different brewers, numbering in the hundreds, are placed on stillage behind rows of trestle tables. Staff serve beer directly from the cask and take payment in the form of cash or tokens purchased at the entrance. Cooling is achieved using wet sacking or blankets for evaporative cooling or though refrigerated cooling saddles and coils. Glasses are distributed at the entrance to the venue, usually for a small deposit although often included in the entrance fee, often bearing a design specific to the festival. A beer list is usually available, often indicating where in the venue the different casks will be situated. Food is usually available, and entertainment and games such as live music, pub quizzes or tombolas are often organised.
Medium-sized festival are typically held in meeting halls or marquees. These include festivals organised by local CAMRA branches, Round Tables or by other clubs and charities. They may be themed, emphasizing beers from a certain region or in a particular style, for instance, the Winter Great British Beer Festival (Formerly the National Winter Ales Festival).
If a pub is well-provided with handpumps, it can put on a small festival by rotating guest beers rapidly through them. Alternatively, a temporary stillage may be set up inside the bar, or in a tent outside. Pub-based festivals usually last a weekend, (in fact, often a long weekend). The pubco Wetherpoon holds simultaneous festivals twice-yearly in all the hundreds of branch in its chain, lasting over two weeks, and using the handpump rotation method. It claims its festivals are Britain's largest. The number of different beers that can be provided in a pub festival ranges from about 15 to about 100.
In all British festivals the beer is sold in quantities of half or full pints. From 2006 the GBBF additionally served beer in "nips", i.e. one-third of a pint (0.2 L; 0.4 US pt), for the benefit of those who wish to sample many beers without consuming excessive amounts of alcohol.
Beer festivals are held across the United Kingdom. Notable ones include:
In addition, many small festivals are organised by local CAMRA branches, pubs, clubs and charities.
Belgium has a number of beer festivals, including:
Beer festivals in Canada include the Great Canadian Beer Festival, which since 1993 (with help from the Victoria chapter of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA)) has focused on cask ales from the Pacific Northwest. Since 2003 the festival has been held at Royal Athletic Park on the first weekend after Labour Day. The festival attracts over 60 craft breweries from across BC and Canada, with more than 8000 visitors. The Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest is a nine-day event in Kitchener-Waterloo, which started in 1969 influenced by the original German Oktoberfest. It is held every October, starting on the Friday before Canadian Thanksgiving and running until the Saturday after. Toronto's Festival of Beer was first held in 1995 at Fort York in Toronto, though has been held at Exhibition Place since 2009. There is also the Lauder Beer Festival which is a much smaller and more exclusive festival held in the North end of Toronto. On May 10, 2010, a group of craft beer enthusiasts launched Vancouver Craft Beer Week, the first "beer week"-type festival in Canada, a format that was begun in Philadelphia in 2008. VCBW spans nine days with events held throughout Vancouver, concluding with a three-day tasting festival. Each year, organizers commission a special VCBW Collaboration Ale with partial proceeds donated to a local charity. Also in 2010, the Ontario Craft Brewers started Ontario Craft Beer Week, a week-long craft beer celebration across the province. The Mondial de la Bière was founded in 1994 in Montreal and attracts around 80,000 people. Edmonton International Beerfest is held each spring in Edmonton, attracting approximately 25,000 people.
The Golden Tap Awards is an annual beer awards event held in Toronto. The awards are sponsored and presented by The Bar Towel, a website and forum dedicated to the discussion and promotion of Toronto's craft and microbrew beer scene.