A short history of Chelmsford CAMRA Festivals

1978 Chelmsford Beer Festival Setup

The Chelmsford CAMRA Beer Festival has always been a high point of the year for real ale enthusiasts, but when it was first held back in July 1977, and for some years afterwards, it was very different to the festival you know and love today.

The function room behind the Lion and Lamb (if you are of a certain generation you will know this place on Duke Street better as Duke's Nightclub) was the venue for that first festival, changing to Chancellor Hall the following year. To give an idea of how much the festival has changed, that year there were 34 beers from 16 breweries on sale; in 2010 there were over 300 real ales on offer, without taking into account ciders, perries and the international bar!

1979 saw the Beer Festival return to the Lion and Lamb for the final time. The following year for the first (but not final) time there was no festival, as no suitable venue was available. The Students’ Union Bar at what was then the Anglia Polytechnic College on Victoria Road hosted the festival in 1981, but again in 1982 the festival was not held, this time due to difficulties obtaining a licence and objections from a few antagonist landlords.

Happily these issues were resolved the following year and 1983 saw 55 beers from 26 breweries (but no cider) on sale. Since then, the festival has taken place every year and stayed at the APU until 2005.

Real ale sausages were a popular snack while the festival was being held at the Student Union Bar, but it was when the festival moved to the larger sports hall on the ground floor that the food on offer became more recognisable in contemporary terms, with the introduction of the burger and hot dog concession which also sold homemade curries. This was accompanied by Podge's famous pickled eggs and even a cheese stall.

The festival then moved another step closer to its current incarnation, as cider and foreign beers were first sold at the festival. Around the millennium the Summer Festival outgrew the Students Union (Placcy) Bar, and in the year 2000, the Branch held its first Winter Beer Festival in that venue.

We were always looking for ways to improve and, as both the Summer and Winter Beer Festivals grew in popularity, the Branch experimented by making the winter beer festival ticket only. Perhaps due to a lack of publicity, this was not a success and the experiment was not repeated!

Program for 1988 Chelmsford Beer Festival

We were fortunate that there was ample space for people to stand or sit on the grass outside the APU summer festivals, and we were even more fortunate with the good weather in the latter years. Especially on the Friday night, there would have been little chance of accommodating all the customers piling into the sports hall in the event of a thunderstorm!

After 22 years of residency at APU, rumours of the town centre campus' imminent closure and relocation forced to the branch to seek out another suitable venue in Chelmsford town centre. None being found, we decided to take things in a whole new direction for 2006, organising an outdoor summer festival in a marquee within easy proximity of Chelmsford town centre.

Having made this decision, all that remained was to find a suitable space, and to tackle the daunting task of planning an outdoor event. Luckily a venue was forthcoming - the football ground adjacent to Moulsham Mill – and the branch were very fortunate in having volunteers who had been closely involved in the organisation, set up and operation of Chelmsford's Cathedral Festival as well as a number of large Scouting events in the county.

With the additional available space under the Moulsham Mill marquee, we could stock beer from more breweries and for the first time sold more than 300 different real ales. We also had a dedicated cider bar and for the first time asked a brewery, Woodforde's, if they would like to run a bar. Expanding the offering even further, local vineyard Felstar were asked to provide locally produced wines for sale.

This locations also saw the first of our hugely popular family fun days, held on the Saturday afternoon; a bouncy castle, inflatable slide, face painting and an ice cream van were laid on for the children. As at APU, we were also extremely fortunate that that year the sun shone for the entire festival.

It was a delight to see whole groups of families having picnics and enjoying the wide selection of beverages on offer, while younger family members enjoyed ice creams and the free soft drinks. Although it was very hard work for the volunteers with long, hot hours, the outdoor festival was a resounding success, and we haven’t looked back. Every year since, the Summer Festival has been an open-air event with marquees.

Aerial view of Moulsham Mill Chelmsford Beer Festival looking south

Change loomed again, and the summer festival did not stay long at Moulsham Mill. There were rumours that the area surrounding the Army & Navy roundabout was to be redeveloped, and also because we felt the summer festival could again run out of space, we approached the local authority in 2008 to relocate to Chelmsford's Central Park. The negotiations were unsuccessful, and we moved instead to the festival's present location at Admiral's Park.

It is fair to say that, once the festival moved to Admirals Park, it really ‘grew legs’ and for those who volunteered to organise and staff the Festivals it proved quite a challenge! With such a large space available and some great support from Chelmsford Council the venue has become our 'home'. We have held many successful Festivals there (and one or two not so), gradually growing over the 12 years to a monster with over 20,000 attendees in 2019.

There are many memories over the years including; our first aerial photographs (pre-UAV) courtesy of the Essex Police Helicopter; attendees ‘mud sliding’ across the venue one particularly wet year; some great tribute bands and audiences (Madness and Cold Play were awesome); five deep queuing at the Cider Bar as cider and perry really took off; introducing Key Keg, a Gin Bar, Henleys chocolate pairing with beer and a world food court to challenge any; and so it goes on.

Then came 2020 and the Pandemic. Like so many others, we had to cancel the event at a fairly late stage incurring considerable costs to CAMRA. We watched, listened and remained cautious like everyone, but in 2022 we decided it was time to plan a return for Summer 2023!

As we returned to holding festivals, we had to plan taking into account that the world had changed and that we do not have as many volunteers sufficiently interested or fit to be able to replicate what we have achieved in the past. The Summer Festival 2023 was a ‘reset’, and instead of picking up where we left off in 2019, we planned something that we could manage – a festival about half of the size of our last, but which still provided a superb selection of real ales and ciders for our visitors to sample..

For 2024 we will continue with the format we set for our return in 2023 which can be managed by our volunteers, but also provides a great outdoor Festival experience for our visitors, remaining one of the largest outdoor Beer & Cider Festivals in the UK.

So, while the festival has changed hugely over the past 44 years ,there has always been one constant – the desire to give attendees the chance to sample some fantastic beers and ciders and to have a great experience in a friendly and inclusive environment. Long may it continue!!