Newark Beer Festival 2023 celebrates first day of success at Newark Castle, organised by Newark CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale)
One of Newark’s longest running festivals began today and hundreds of people came out to the Castle Grounds to enjoy the hot sun and a cold pint.
The Newark Beer and Cider festival returned for this 26th year to its original stomping ground of Newark Castle for the first time since it began in 1996.
Organised and run by volunteers from Newark CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale), friends and families reunited for the three-day festival, which runs until Sunday.
“I have been coming to the beer festival since 1996 when the first one was around,” said David Moulds.
“I don’t live in Newark anymore so it’s nice to come back, meet friends and have some nice beers.
“The festival is brilliant, back in its original site which is nice. It is like its spiritual home because the first one was here and it is quite central.”
Friends Paul Armstrong, Lee Dawson and Jon Beckett said: “We came all the way from Lincoln, this is our 23rd year of coming to the beer festival, it’s an annual pilgrimage.
“We’re here for the sun and the beer and we always make sure to end the day with a Moonshine.”
John Elton said: “We’re here for the sunshine and a few beers, we’re regulars now, we came about six or seven times.
“We go around the beers in the morning and decide which ones we go for the second round.”
To which, his friend Mick Warriner added: “When you go to a pub, if the pub is selling that particular brewery ale, you already tasted it at the beer festival, you sampled before you went into the pub.
“It gives us a chance to have a wide variety of beers and decide which ones are slightly more preferable than others and then when you go out to a commercial hospitality venue you can get which beers you like the best.”
The three-day event showcases 100 real ales and 40 real ciders, many from local and regional breweries.
Alongside the extensive range of real ales and ciders there is also a craft beer bar run by micropub, Just Beer, and a wine, gin and fizz bar run by wine shop, Ann et Vin.
According to Daren Hart, working behind the bar, some of the best-selling names of this morning included India Pale Ale, Wonkey Donkey and Popcorn Porter.
Kate Seal came all the way from Doncaster and has supped over 22,000 beers, all of which are written down in her own Beer Bibble.
She said: “I have been doing real ale festivals since the mid-90’s and I have been collecting the beers since 1984.
“I haven’t made my decision on my favourite beer yet.
“The festival here is really good, it’s not as big as usual but still a good size.
“There’s a good selection, quite a few new breweries, there’s a few new ones for me to try and I have them all written down.”
Couple Susan and Philip Wilding from Leicester said: “We do beer festivals everywhere around the country, we came here last year and we enjoyed it.
“Sun, beer, beautiful grounds, what’s there not to enjoy? It’s a great atmosphere, everyone is nice and polite.”
A pub quiz took place from 3pm to 3.30pm today and live musical entertainment with Food Doctors and then Basket Case happens tonight.
Todmorrow, the live music will continue with Lee Robertshaw and The Band from County Hell.
“The Black Forest beer was really good,” said Antony Barson.
Jayne Danby said: “It’s an easy festival to get to, only a bus ride away, £2 each way, it’s perfect.
“There’s a good variety and I will try as many as possible, as many as the legs will let me.
“I like the pale ales but you have to try different ones when you are here, don’t you?”
Robert Orton said: “You can try different beers that you usually don’t.
“The amount of people that will be coming this weekend to Newark is good for the economy.”
His friend Tugkan Dikkez added: “It’s a really good and friendly atmosphere.”
Food at the festival is being provided by Porters of Newark, Food to Go, and Indian food from Memsaab.
Friends Dan Patching, Matt Kirkham and Dan Hall said: “We do this every year as a get together. We’ve been doing it since 2016.
“Two of us come from Nottingham and our friend comes from Lincoln so this is the perfect middle way.
“We try to avoid the ciders because they are quite strong so we stick to the pale ales.”
Festival organiser Sam Lucas said: “I just want to have a good amount of people in here enjoying the sun and drinking beer.
“We got stuff from all over the country, we got from Cornwall, about 30% of the beers are from about 30 miles from Newark.
“The idea is to offer a wide range of different beers and strengths for people to enjoy and try.
“Same with the cider, we have got 40 ciders.
“A few people here are beer enthusiasts and they will be trying different ones, the younger ones will probably come around the quiz and live music time.”
