06/08/2026
With less than two weeks to go until we’re on site to build the beer festival we thought it was about time we updated you on what's changed and what hasn't.
Many volunteers and visitors have suggested changes to the festival and we've done our best to improve things where needed, we've also left well alone where we think it works just fine.
Firstly, we'll be having some beer, lots of it! A look at the beer list will show we have many favourites and our local breweries are well represented, as they should be. For this year’s festival we’re bringing in a lot of hand pulls and will be upgrading our bars to handle them (bad pun intended), and we’ll be using these to showcase those beers from our local breweries. We've also gone out of our way to find beers from further afield including many one-offs.
And while the number of cask beers available remains the same, we've increased the number of keg beers on offer at any time for the very simple reason, people have asked for them! Plus we’re introducing a Lager Bar which has caused a not inconsiderable amount of discussion! Fosters, Madri, Carlsberg, Budweiser... yeah we're not having any of them! Many small brewers now brew lagers to rival the best from abroad. Try them and taste the difference to the mass-produced mainstream offerings.
We’ve kept the four main brewery bars where the folks from the breweries will be there all week pouring your beers, with the new addition of Thornbridge joining regular favourites Oakham, Nene Valley and Ossett. Alongside these we've introduced shared bars for other breweries who wanted to just test the water. We welcome aboard Baker's Dozen from Ketton, Round Corner of Melton Mowbray, Grainstore from Oakham and with Batemans returning after an absence of a couple of years.
Our World Beer Bar will see improvements with many foreign beers now available on draught, allowing drinkers to try thirds of some of these amazing beers from the continent without having to go “all-in” on a bottle. And if that wasn’t enough, we have successfully diverted around 50 casks of ale from the US of A which has caused a lot of interest. We even have a beer from the 'other' Peterborough in New Hampshire! The festival will showcase the largest selection of American cask beers anywhere outside of Northern America! Not bad for a little local fest. And if you want a little more, we’ve got some Dutch ale coming over in wooden casks too.
Our cider bar has been extended to give more bar space, hopefully reducing queues at busy times and providing more space to hang out and chat cider with our volunteers when it’s quieter. And the extra space we’ve added will also be used to test a bespoke cooling system for our ciders, we just sell so much cider that no off the shelf cooling will keep up!
And that’s not all, we’re also bringing back the Cider of the Festival competition!
The choice of wines has been increased and we welcome three new producers to the bar; Cooper’s Croft of Wickhambrook and Mallard Point and Rutland both of Rutland.
The Gin and Rum bar will be popular as always, and sees an increased range of rums for this year.
Perhaps the most noticeable change for some this year is that we won’t be accepting cash over the alcohol bars. We are not going cashless, we will always have a method in place for those who don’t want to or aren’t able to use contactless. This year we’ll be trialling strike cards. They’re used at pretty much every other beer festival, buy them in £10 amounts, and when you order a beer over the bar the cost will be crossed off the card. And at the end of the night, you can exchange them back for a refund, or give them to the festival charity.
Or you can just use contactless.
Music is a major part of the festival and we're very happy to have The Shed sponsor the stage this year with so many great acts it’s better to head over to our website to check them out.
A new thing we’re trying out this year is a Garden Screen, a large video wall facing into our beer garden that during the day will screen old footage of breweries and pubs, as well as some modern day footage from our brewery bars, and in the evening will stream the bands out to the garden. It will not have speakers so won’t ruin the peace we have outside.
Family Fun Time. Saturday we're introducing a family element to the proceedings. Although we can't have the fair this year due to space restraints we'll be providing a few family orientated things to add to the fest.
We have reintroduced our Hospitality Suites after a gap of 10 years. We still have a couple of spaces available if any company would like to treat their clients to an enhanced corporate experience. And when they’re not booked for companies, we’ll be using it as a Members Lounge, including all Saturday.
We’re also introducing more water stations this year. The recent weather has been hotter than last year, and one thing we’ve been very aware of is the request for easier access to drinking water. So we’ve ordered in some “water walls”, drinking water taps that will (hopefully) fit along our main bars, making it much easier to grab a drink, rinse your glass, refill a water bottle, or a dog bowl.
One of the biggest changes we’ve made is to the Tuesday Preview session, or rather, we’ve not changed it. We’ve just added an Industry only session before it. Our Industry Session is the new and improved 'trade' session and takes place from 1pm on Tuesday 25th. Anyone working in the pub, brewery or associated professions can get a ticket. Just apply via the website. The popular Preview Session still takes place from 3pm on the Tuesday with tickets freely available in most local pubs.
Peterborough Beer Festival has always been inclusive, and we’re setting out to make it easier to access too. For several years now we’ve said that those with mobility issues can be dropped off at the front entrance rather than having to cross the embankment to get to us, and this year we’re improving that by saying anyone with mobility issues can come straight to the Members Gate if there’s a queue on the other gates to get quicker access without having to stand in a queue.
We’re also planning to open the main gates up to half an hour earlier from the Wednesday onwards so everyone can get in, grab their glasses, pick a seat and choose their first drinks before the bars open at noon. This will only be available if we’re ready for members of the public on site though, so if we’re still busy setting up, we may not be able to.
We believe that these generally small changes will make it a much better festival, polishing the edges of what we already have.
And if you’ve got any questions about any of them, or have heard something we’ve not covered here, please just ask us.
