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Camra, the real ale enthusiasts’ group, has cancelled Britain’s biggest beer festival amid an existential crisis as it launched a cost-cutting drive to address “budget shortfalls”.
In an email to members of the Campaign for Real Ale, seen by the Guardian, the embattled organisation said it was responding to a “stark picture” of its finances, caused by rising costs and stagnant membership numbers.
Next year’s Great British Beer Festival, an event that has been running since 1977, will be cancelled along with a counterpart festival held in winter, according to the organisation’s chair, Ash Corbett-Collins.
The decision comes after this year’s events failed to attract enough visitors to cover the rising cost of running Camra, accommodating the volunteers who run the event, and hiring venues, resulting in a “substantial loss”.
“We are exploring why these events made a loss and identifying lessons learned,” Corbett-Collins wrote.
“Other Camra festivals will continue to be assessed through our usual processes to minimise the risk of loss. Doing nothing is not an option. If we do not act now, the stark reality is we will not exist in the future.”
Camra, which is dedicated to the promotion of cask ale and has 145,000 members, said it would launch a three-year strategy and review its internal budgets to ensure its financial viability.
“Our activities will be leaner,” said Corbett-Collins. “We must sadly stop supporting the ‘nice to haves’ and instead focus on our key objectives.”
Camra, a not-for-profit organisation founded in 1971, usually holds the GBBF in August, as well as a sister event in February.
The festival is a key moment in the beer and brewing industry’s calendar, allowing tens of thousands of beer fans to sample about 900 brews, as well as hosting the Champion Beer of Britain awards. This year’s iteration was held at the NEC Birmingham.
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The festival is thought to have been called off only four times in nearly 50 years, two of which were in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The 1984 event was cancelled due to a fire and the 2024 version was called off after Camra’s chosen venue, Olympia in London, was unavailable.
Camra has been keen to move with the times over the years, including cracking down on sexist beer names in 2019 and issuing a rallying call to recruit more female beer lovers.
Corbett-Collins told members on Wednesday that the organisation would need to “remember our roots but also evolve if we are going to grow in our collective strength and voice”.
He told the Guardian on Wednesday evening: “It has been an incredibly difficult announcement to make. The Great British Beer Festival has a rich 50-year history, but we simply did not get the numbers through the door to make it viable. I had to take decisive action to safeguard Camra’s future, but we will not slow our campaigning efforts.
“The chancellor must use the autumn budget to support our pubs. We want a cut in VAT and beer duty for pubs, grossly unfair business rates addressed and national insurance contributions eased. Pubs are closing at an alarming rate as the whole beer and pub trade grapples with rising costs and changing trends. Without meaningful government action, our communities risk losing more of their social hubs for good.”
