Cancelled beer festival is 'major loss' for city

Dave Richardson from Oxford CAMRA said brewers "looked forward to ... the annual competition" held at the beer festival

An annual beer festival, which celebrated its 25th edition last year, has been cancelled "for the foreseeable future".

The Oxford CAMRA Beer and Cider Festival was supposed to take place between 23-25 October at Oxford Town Hall but organisers said rising costs, a lack of volunteers and "an attitude from the town hall, which was less than helpful at times" were the main reasons for the decision.

Dave Richardson from Oxford CAMRA called the cancellation "a major loss for the city".

Oxford City Council said its team had been "responsive to all correspondence from CAMRA" and had "remained available to help the organisers throughout".

The 25th annual beer festival, held in Oxford Town Hall in 2024

The event has been used as an opportunity for small and independent breweries to get together and gain valuable exposure.

The Society of Independent Brewers and Associates (SIBA) has held its regional Independent Beer Awards as part of the festival.

Mr Richardson said brewers "looked forward to this annual competition" and that it was a real "accolade to win".

He explained that getting better access into local pubs was a "particular problem and obviously if you had a champion beer at the festival that would help your prospects, but I'm afraid that won't happen this year now."

He said organisers decided in August they had no option but to cancel the event after facing deadlines for payments, such as orders for glasses.

"We realized that we just didn't have enough active volunteers, an attitude from the town hall, which was less than helpful and... ever increasing costs."

The city council said it was "sorry" to hear about the cancellation and had always worked to support the event offering concessions and support.

In a statement the council said: "Due to an incident at last year's... festival we agreed with Thames Valley Police to use our nominated provider to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all attendees and protect the Town Hall's license. We only pass on the cost price of this service."

"CAMRA has cited issues around communication, however, our team has been responsive to all correspondence from CAMRA. We have remained available to help the organisers throughout."