Don't bother: Keighley and Worth Valley Beer festival

Please note this is not a CAMRA Beer festival.

A bit steep for any beer festival ....!!

Does that mean people who come from away can't get a through ticket from home, like you can on the Ravenglass & Eskdale railway?

Does it mean people who were not going for the beer - iejust on for the train ride - can't drink the real ale on the train?

Music spoils beer festivals for me!

Thanks for that info. It was one I had often thought would be nice to do it in the future - maybe this year - but not now!

Indeed. Makes beer about £4 a pint for your average drinker.

Unfortunately the website doesn't explain.

My understanding is that in the evenings there will be no beer on the train. Last year there were queues all down the corridors meaning that you couldnt begin to get served before you reached your detination!

Agreed. And it always seems that organiseres think that all beer drinkers enjoy certain genres of music (eg trad jazz, Dr Busker etc etc)

I think I'm sticking to small pub fests and CAMRA organised events in future. We're becoming a bit spoilt for choice on the beerfest front.

In message , M Platting

Its a beer and music festival actually.

The Dayrover fares are £20 on Saturday and £16 on Friday and include entry to the shed.

All other normal fares are available ie Full Line Return is £9.40

There are concessionary fares, members fares, family fares and local residents fares available.

Entry to the shed is £10 on Saturday, £8 on Friday FREE on Sunday and Thursday And discounts are available for members etc.

Normal fares apply Thursday and Sunday day rover £14.00

There is a FREE bus service all day Saturday from Keighley to Oxenhope rail station

And there is another FREE bus service Friday and Saturday night from Oxenhope to Hebden Bridge

You do not HAVE to buy a commerative glass you can hire one or be given a plastic glass.

All the real ales are £2.50 a pint which is a reasonable price.

Glasses and Tokens are available at Keighley Station at the Old Spot Bar on platform 4.

And finally all the information including the fares is at

And no it's not a Camra beer festival though the assistance of Camra is acknowledged and appreciated. I am aware that most on here, as Camra members, as I do myself ,are used to getting in for nothing or very little with the flash of a membership card. The event costs a lot to stage and unlike Camra festivals we can't ask HQ to give us a sub if it doesn't cover its costs, which are considerable.

I have long since acknowledged that I cannot pull pints because I cannot hear what is aked for .. and always go on door or glasses!

The world's best beer festival is at Cropton in November.

The atmosphere is great, the choice of beer is incredible, the food is good.

I've been going for ten years and it's by far the best.

Bill

Holders of through tickets to Keighley & WVR (G053 on Avantix) can purchase wristbands for entry to the shed - they are £2 on Friday and £6 on Saturday.

Therefore a day out from Leeds with entry to the shed and unlimited travel on the trains would be £15.60 on Friday and £19.60 on Saturday.

Since that includes the fare from Leeds to Keighley as well I do not regard that as excessive

Beer List available here

Perhaps I should add also that the entertainment is by no means continuous,

The beer list is riddled with errors. There are spelling mistakes and factual inaccuracies (including totally wrong abv's). It is so important to get things like this right - it looks sloppy and unprofessional.

So people coming to the festival expecting music and beer, might actually be denied the music they have paid so much for?

Many other CAMRA organised festivals have music but don't feel the need to call themselves 'Beer and Music' festivals. How many people actually come for the music, I wonder! Have you ever thought of doing a survey to find out whether people really want the music element?

Curious - so you're competing against you own rail service!

Let's face it, it would not go ahead without local CAMRA members.

Your implication here is that local CAMRA branches can put on festivals on the basis "Oh well, if we don't make money, St Albans will bail us out. " I don't think you've any idea of the information CAMRA HQ need to authorise a festival.

Yes, costs can be considerable, but in your case, the venue is free, the staff are all volunteers and even some of the music acts are 'in house'. I'd be most interested to know why your costs are so much greater than CAMRA festivals, that you have to charge such high entrance fees.

And back in my outlook express I can find

Modesty seems to prevent members of this railway from blowing their own trumpet, but can I draw your attention to the forthcoming Beer and Music Festival at the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway next weekend (23/24/25/26th Oct)?

The entertainment, especially on Saturday night

Frequent trains from Leeds and Bradford (and Skipton for that matter). Buses to and from Hebden Bridge (free in the evening) may be of use to my Mancunian friends.

Details of trains buses etc etc at:

As I think I've said before, this festival, along with Peterborough, Cambridge and Liverpool, rank as on of my 'must do at all costs' beer fests.

And then the price went up. Oh dear poor you can't you afford it?

Sorry if you can't afford it. If you feel you won't get VFM then you're obviously a sad, whinger.

How interesting that you should trawl up positive comments I made about the beer festival! Why then do you think I have changed my view? Could it possibly be that the Worth Valley festival is not as good as it used to be?

No I can't, not when there are so many more beer festivals these days offering better value. This weekend alone, there are CAMRA festivals at Stoke on Trent, Mansfield, Birkenhead, Chester. Long Eaton, Falmouth and Alloa.

Rather condescending of you to say " Oh dear poor you can't you afford it?" I'd have expected better from an official of the KWVR . If this is your attitude towards criticism, then you deserve to fail.

My previous postings were appropriate for the time. No longer though. I do wonder if you are the 'fat idle bastard' (a direct quote from a member of the railway) who made a.total mess of the staffing last year, leaving many volunteers bewildered as to what they were supposed to do. Apparently the same 'idle bastard' spent most of his time in the support coach playing solitaire on the computer while everyone else tried to salvage something from the chaos in the engine shed.

me too to all the above comments from miles platting, and I would add that we stopped having live music at our festivals when we realised that the real ale drinkers left when the band started up and those left had only come for the band and drank very little!

I do .... if I have to add in travel from West Cumbria ... and an hotel to stay in .....

doesnt that rather depend on what the band are doing, for instance Ive seen everything from irish folk singers, jazz bands, string quartets, barber shop quartets, covers bands, heavy metal, karaoke and even the Wurzels!! at beer festivals, some more successful than others

but the key seems to be the live music is to provide entertainment, but it is not THE entertainment.

beer festivals are social events, people prefer to be able to talk to one another, if the music is there as an entertainment, its background, people can listen to it or not if the want to. If the music is THE entertainment you have no choice but to listen to it and you cant listen or talk to other people

same for staffing them, the most horrible experience serving, is to be standing at a bar with people shouting at you because you cant hear them

Aw