North Bedfordshire

47th Bedford Beer & Cider Festival, October 2025

BEDFORD BEER & CIDER FESTIVAL HAS NOW CLOSED. WE LOOK FORWARD TO BRINGING YOU OUR 48th FESTIVAL IN OCTOBER 2026!

Bedford Corn Exchange
St Paul's Square
BEDFORD
MK40 1SL

Wednesday 1 to Saturday 4 October 2025
Open:
Wed 4-11, Thu-Fri 12-11, Sat 12-10.
Admission: non-members £5, CAMRA members £2 at all times when paid at the door.

Advance tickets. Discounted, multi-day admission tickets are available for both CAMRA members and non-members. For non-members there's also a single-day group festival pass for six people including admission, a festival glass and beer tokens for non-members. For further details and to purchase tickets, click advance tickets.

Family area. Supervised children under age 18 will be admitted at no extra charge to a family area in the Howard Room upstairs on Saturday only until 5pm. Unaccompanied under-18s will not be admitted at any time. Proof of age may be required.

Payment at the bars. All bars will accept payment with beer tokens, while some may also accept direct payment by credit/debit card. Beer tokens may be purchased at the festival glasses stand or festival office with cash or credit/debit card. A refund of the unused value remaining on a beer token may be obtained at the glasses stand or festival office. Please consider donating your unused beer tokens to the festival's charity by placing them in the marked buckets.

festival half-pint Festival glasses. The bars will serve your beverage in your festival glass which can be obtained for a deposit at the festival glasses stand. If you do not want to keep your glass, your deposit will be refunded when you return your glass. Both pint (lined at 1, 1/2 and 1/3 pint) and half pint glasses (lined at 1/2 & 1/3 pint) will be available. The new 2025 (47th) festival glass is the half pint glass, while the pint glass is from the 46th festival in October 2024. You may bring your own glass from another festival, but it must be oversized and clearly show the legal CE lines for 1/3, 1/2 or 1 pint measurements. Festival staff reserve the right to serve only in approved glasses.

BBCF46 October 2024 Beer, Cider and Wine. The festival offers over 90 different UK cask and foreign beers, cider and perry, plus a small selection of red and white wines. Cask beers and ciders are in the main hall, while foreign and KeyKeg beers are on the Howard Room bar upstairs. Click to download beer and cider lists:
* Cask beers
* Foreign and KeyKeg beers
* Cider and Perry
The beer lists are being updated as orders are confirmed. The wine list is not yet available.

Tutored tasting. Visitors are invited to take part in tutored beer and mead tasting sessions for a small charge to cover costs. For further details, click Tasting Sessions.

Bedford Ukulele Orchestra at BBCF46

UPDATE! Champion Beer of Britain. The festival has hosted the Eastern region selection panel for Champion Beer of Britain, Stouts and Porters category. The winners are:
Gold. Green Jack Lurcher Stout from Lowestoft, Suffolk
Silver. Mighty Oak Old Man and the Sea from Maldon Essex
Bronze. Nene Valley Egyptian Cream from Oundle, Northants.
Regional winners will be candidates for the national Champion Beer of Britain awards 2026.

Entertainment. We have live music from the balcony each evening:
* Wed 1 Oct.: Bedford Ukulele
* Thu 2 Oct.: Acoustopaea
* Fri 3 Oct.: Who Stung Sting
* Sat 4 Oct.: Skimmington Ride.

Festival shirts. Quality, burgundy-colour festival T-shirts, polo shirts and long-sleeve hoodies are available to order before or at the festival. Click festival shirts for details. Special versions are available for festival volunteers only (see Staffing below).

Flyer. An A5 festival flyer is available to help promote the event. Click BBCF47 flyer to download.

Video. Our friends at Future Legend Media (FLM) have produced a short, fun video ad to promote the festival. Click BBCF promotional video to play it.

Staffing.The festival depends heavily on having enough volunteer staff behind the bars, glasses and other functions throughout opening times, as well as setting up before and taking down after the event. Help is needed from CAMRA members or from friends supported by a member. Volunteer staff are entitled to reasonable free beer or cider and subsidised meals while on duty. Local volunteers working through to evening closing time are offered subsidised taxis to get home. Festival volunteer T-shirts and polo shirts are now available for a modest charge.
To register as a volunteer and tell us when you are available, click BBCF47 staffing to open the online staffing form. We still need more help for setting up the festival on the Sunday to Tuesday before we open and for taking it down on Sunday 5 October. If you have a staffing query, email ku.gro.armac.sdebhtron@gniffats.

We are grateful to Gallagher Developments for generously sponsoring the festival for a second year.
Local businesses and individuals are invited to sponsor beer cask ends or display promotional banners in the main hall. Click BBCF47 sponsorship&advertising for the options with costs and other details.

For general enquiries about the festival, email ku.gro.armac.sdebhtron@lavitsefreeb.