After a couple of years off for Covid, we’re back at Kelham Island Museum for our 46th annual beer and cider festival from Wednesday 19 to Saturday 22 October 2022.
As always, the event is organised, run and staffed entirely by volunteers who do so to share their passion for good beer, cider and perry. And we bring you a massive selection of them all served in your commemorative glass. The festival also features live music, street food, traditional pub games and more in a wonderfully atmospheric venue.
The festival site
The following areas will feature this year (some details of which features are where are still to be finalised so may change):
Upper Hall
Cask ale, cider and perry, bookshop, tombola, stalls, seating, glass rinse, live music.
Brearley Room
Bradfield Brewery bar, seating.
Courtyard
Street food vendors, toilets, glass rinse.
Marquee
Cask ale, cider & perry, traditional pub games, seating, CAMRA membership sign up.
Engine Room
See the museum’s mighty steam powered River Don Beam Engine, this will be fired up at selected times throughout the festival week.
Stone Garden (NEW!)
Craft beer in bottle, can and keg; seating.
Millowners Arms
This is now a privately run pub open all year round, festival visitors will also be able to visit their bar for additional food and drink choices (festival beer tokens and cash are not in use at this bar – payment by card only).
The beers, ciders and perries
The range runs to over 300 different drinks to choose from. On the beer front we feature a whole variety of styles across cask, keg, bottle and can from the traditional styles like mild, bitter and stout right through to modern IPAs, sours and more. On the cider & perry bar it is all your proper farmhouse style still ciders and perries made from fermented freshly pressed apple or pear juice with a number of small artisan producers featured as well as some of your more well known names.
We aim to have them all available when we first open Wednesday night and will remain on sale until they run out. The list will be published here closer to the time when confirmed.
Buying drinks
To keep things easy and secure for our volunteers and speed up service a little, our festival bars only accept tokens. You can buy tokens from the token desks around the festival (we accept payment for tokens by cash or card) and the admission package includes enough to get your first drink. Don’t worry if you don’t spend them all, we can refund up to £5 worth of unused tokens (or you can donate them to charity). Third party traders such as the food stalls and Millowners Arms accept cash or card as normal.
Note as a 4 day event we only have a limited quantity of each so it is a reduced choice on the final day of the event, however there should still be a decent selection!
Admission package
The advertised prices include
- Entry to the festival, including to any live music
- Deposit on your festival glass (£3) which you can either keep as a souvenir or cash in before you leave. All your drinks will be served in this glass and self-service glass rinse stations can be found throughout the venue.
- £5 of drinks tokens (additional tokens can be purchased from the desks around the venue)
We do not sell advance tickets, just turn up and pay on the gate. The festival can get busy on Friday night so we recommend getting down early if you can – once the festival has reached capacity we have to close the gate to ensure the safety and comfort of everyone.
Optional extras
- You can also buy a printed programme (£1) containing the beer list and other useful information from the admissions desk and token desks
- We are planning a few private events such as local history talks and tutored tastings, these will require an additional ticket booked in advance. Details to be announced.
- There is a charge to play the games, however there are prizes to be won!
Opening hours and admission prices
- Wednesday 5pm-11pm (entry package £8, which is just the cost of the glass & tokens)
- Thursday 12pm-11pm (entry package £11, or £8 for CAMRA members)
- Friday 12pm-11pm (entry package £13, or £10 for CAMRA members)
- Saturday 11am-10pm (entry package £13, or £10 for CAMRA members)
If you are a CAMRA member, please ensure you show your membership card at the entrance to benefit from the discounted entry price Thursday to Saturday.
Volunteer
Our organising committee have been holding planning meetings over the past months to get all the details sorted, however we need lots more volunteers over the week of the festival to make it all happen!
Fancy joining the team? We have lots of roles and not just behind a bar! All the staff are unpaid volunteers but there are a few perks including a free drinks allowance, food on longer shifts, t-shirt (subject to availability), volunteer social on Saturday night and staff reunion coach trip after the festival to a nearby beery place!
Staff are needed for the set up and take down as well as the festival itself.
You can sign up to work as part of our team of volunteers using our online staffing form now!
Sponsorship
There are a number of opportunities to promote your business to festival visitors. You can sponsor the glasses, entertainment, programme, bars, games, tokens, website, posters and even individual beers! Please email festival@sheffield.camra.org.uk for more details.
Getting to the festival
Our venue, Kelham Island Museum, is in a former industrial area a walkable distance from the City Centre that has enjoyed much regeneration over recent years and now features a whole host of pubs, restaurants, shops, breweries and more down the valley alongside the river Don.
Tram
Shalesmoor tram stop is just five minutes walk from the venue and is served by the Blue and Yellow tram routes (towards Malin Bridge and Middlewood) and provide handy connections from trains at Sheffield or Meadowhall stations, the City Centre and various other areas of Sheffield.
Bus
Nearest stops are on Nursery Street (by the Harlequin pub) or Gibralter Street (by Shakespeares pub), both a short walk away.
Train
Trains run to Sheffield from across the country with services operated by Cross Country, East Midlands Railway, Northern and Transpennine Express.
The Blue route tram will take you from Sheffield Station to Shalesmoor tram stop, a short walk from our venue.
There is no car parking on site, however there is limited on street parking nearby and various pay car parks. The venue is just off the inner ring road. Alternatively there are a number of park & ride sites around Sheffield from where you can catch a tram to Shalesmoor, a few minutes walk from the festival.