An autumn fixture for four decades
The Norwich Beer Festival at St Andrews Hall: A History of the CAMRA Festival
For most of its life the city's beer festival ran inside a fifteenth-century friary church. This is the story of that arrangement, and an honest account of where it has gone.
For a large part of its existence, the Norwich Beer Festival took place inside a fifteenth-century Dominican friary church. The incongruity of a beer festival Norwich held in a friary church never mattered: the nave was the biggest covered floor in the centre, and a building used to corn markets and mayoral banquets was not troubled by a few casks.
How the Norwich Beer Festival came to St Andrews Hall
The Norwich Beer Festival was run by the Norwich and Norfolk branch of the Campaign for Real Ale, and like most CAMRA festivals it needed a venue that was large, central, cheap enough for a volunteer operation and tolerant of an unusual fit-out. St Andrews Hall met all four conditions comfortably, and the relationship settled into an annual autumn fixture.
That timing became part of the city’s rhythm. The festival traditionally landed in the second half of October and ran for most of a week, long enough that people planned around it. Anyone who lived in Norwich during those decades could tell you roughly when beer festival week fell without checking.
CAMRA, the volunteers and what it was like inside
Anyone who went to a beer festival Norwich held in the 1990s remembers the scale of it. Casks were stanchioned along the aisles under the arcades, bars ran the length of the nave, and the height of the room swallowed the noise and warmth of a few thousand people as a modern hall of the same floor area cannot.
At its height the festival offered several hundred beers and ciders at once, with a volunteer staff running the bars and a glass-hire arrangement of the sort familiar to anyone who has been to one. It became one of the larger regional festivals in the country, drawing visitors from well beyond Norfolk.
The other drinks events in the halls
The beer festival was the biggest but not the only one. A separate Norwich Real Cider and Perry Festival also used the building, and the Mangledwurzels — a Somerset scrumpy-and-western band with a long touring history — are documented playing that event in the hall in June 2007. Food and drink fairs have appeared in the programme alongside the collectors’ trade.
Where the Norwich Beer Festival stands now
The long-running festival no longer operates in the halls on the basis described above. The web address that served it for years now resolves to a differently-named Norwich craft beer event held elsewhere in the city, which is a separate event and not the same one continuing under a new banner.
That is a change worth stating plainly, because the association between this building and beer in October was strong enough that people still assume it holds. Anyone planning a visit should work from the current organiser’s own listing, not from the old habit, and anyone looking for what the halls themselves have on should consult the events guide.
Why the history of the connection is remembered
Four decades of the Norwich Beer Festival in one room leaves a mark. For a great many people the inside of St Andrews Hall is something they first saw with a third of a pint in their hand, and the history of the building reads differently once its most popular modern use turns out to be a beer festival.
It also fits the pattern. This is a church that has been a mint, a workhouse, a corn exchange, an assize court and a concert hall. Absorbing a beer festival for forty years is, by the standards of its own history, entirely in character. Taking in a beer festival for forty years barely registers against the rest of that list.
Common questions
Is the Norwich Beer Festival still held at St Andrews Hall?
Not in the form it took for decades. The long-running CAMRA festival in the halls no longer operates on that basis, and the web address that once served it now points to a separate Norwich craft beer event held elsewhere in the city. Anyone planning a visit should check the current organiser's own listing.
When did the festival run, and for how long?
It was an autumn fixture, traditionally falling in the second half of October and running across most of a week. The pattern held with remarkable consistency for something like four decades, which is why people arranged time off around it and why it became a fixed point in the Norwich calendar rather than simply another event on it.
Why was a beer festival held in a medieval church?
Practicality rather than irreverence. The nave was the largest covered floor in central Norwich, with the height to stack casks, the structure to take weight and a long history of hosting markets and fairs. A building used as a civic hall since 1538 had no difficulty absorbing one more kind of gathering.
How big did the festival get?
It grew into one of the larger regional festivals in the country, with several hundred beers and ciders on at once and attendance running well into the thousands across the week. The cloister walk and the smaller rooms were pressed into service alongside the two main halls as it expanded.
What was CAMRA's role?
The festival was run by the Norwich and Norfolk branch of the Campaign for Real Ale, staffed very largely by volunteers. That volunteer model is the reason festivals of this kind can offer the range they do, and also why their arrangements shift when the people or the premises change.
Did the halls host other drinks events?
Yes. A separate Norwich Real Cider and Perry Festival used the building as well, and the Mangledwurzels are documented playing that event in the hall in June 2007. Food and drink fairs of various kinds have been part of the venue's programme for a long time. Cider, beer and produce have all filled the nave at one time or another.