Shrewsbury CAMRA Beer Festival 2023 will take place from 27th to 30th September 2023 at St. Mary’s church. As in 2022, the Festival will use a token system to speed up service. You can buy tokens with card or cash, and up to ten unused tokens, along with your glass, can be refunded. Almost every beer or cider will cost two tokens for a third of a pint or three for a half. Entry prices will include tokens to a cash value which means CAMRA members will get free entry, while non-members will pay £3 on top of the tokens. Glass deposit will reflect the purchase price of the glass, but will be refundable. Details of sponsorship and, most importantly beer and cider lists will appear on this page in due course – so why not bookmark it now?
Location
The festival will be at St. Mary’s Church (full name is the Church of St. Mary the Virgin). This is located on St. Mary’s Street, just beyond the top of Pride Hill in Shrewsbury town centre.
It’s about 5 minutes or so walk up Castle Street from the train and bus stations, and there are various car parks around the town centre, between 5 and 15 minutes walk away.
For those that need the postcode location of the festival, it’s SY1 1DX.
Opening Times
The festival is open on the following days:
Wednesday 27th September from 11:00 to 22:30
Thursday 28th September from 11:00 to 22:30
Friday 29th September from 11:00 to 22:30
Saturday 30th September from 11:00 to 21:00 (or until the beer runs out)
Entrance Fee
Entry will be such that for non members, a premium of just under £3 will be added to the cash value of the tokens give. The total fee (TBC) includes your glass and 9 tokens (enough for three half pints). CAMRA members will still get free entry (in fact a slight discount on their tokens) including their glass and 3 half pints. As we return we have discovered, as you will have, that prices have risen considerably. So, unfortunately, we have had to raise our prices as well. Our glasses will now cost £2.80 (refundable). They’ve actually gone up to us by 33%!
Extra tokens are available singly or in blocks and can be bought with card or cash
If you join CAMRA on the day, you will be eligible for the discounted entry, and you will get a further 4 free half pints! Membership starts at £20 if you are under 26, £28.50 for older people. Joint memberships are available. As benefits include £30 of money-off vouchers in selected pubs and discounts in others, it’s a proper good deal! More information at https://camra.org.uk/join/membership-benefits/
Beers and Ciders
The full list of beers, ciders and perries available at the festival will be published nearer the time. However, we are aiming on having 100 beers, hopefully including beers from every brewery in Shropshire.
The drinks list from 2022 are available to download here to give you an idea of our beer ordering philosophy, which is to seek out the newest and best beers and breweries!
Shrewsbury CAMRA Beer Festival Beer List
Shrewsbury CAMRA Beer Festival Ciders and Perries List
For non-beer drinkers, we will also have a selection of craft gins and country wines. If you are, or are with a gin drinker, prices are set to keep you and your fellow drinkers in the room A single gin with mixer will now be 7 tokens (a bit more than a pint) and a double 11 tokens (a bit less than two pints). This is because the point of the gin bar is not to make a huge profit but to keep drinkers in the hall to drink more beer and cider! You will be able to pay directly by card at the gin bar because of the high number of tokens which would otherwise be involved.
Volunteering
If anyone would like to help out at this year’s beer festival, either with the setting up beforehand, assisting at the festival itself, or packing up afterwards, please download and complete the following Staffing form and we will get back to you, or you can hang on a bit and complete and updated form:
Completed forms should be sent to Becky as soon as possible. Her contact details are on the form. Becky will stand down as Festival Staffing Officer shortly (our grateful thanks to her), so the new staffing officer will get back to you. Thank you.
Campaign for Real Ale - Shrewsbury and West Shropshire Branch 
Hi are food vendor bookings open?
Thanks
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Hi Aayan, We are quite a small venue, and are in the middle of town, so don’t have a lot of food vendors, usually one or two offering essentially hand meals (we hope visitors wanting something more substantial will patronise one of the town centre pubs or restaurants). At the moment, we are awaiting the chance to discuss their interest with the new operators of the on-site café, and then we’ll look for other partners to complete our offer to visitors. Watch this space!
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Went to the festival on Thursday 8th, some friends and I came down from Warrington. I’ve been to most of the Shrewsbury Festivals since it first began, I think St Mary’s is my favourite venue. Plenty of atmosphere due to the surroundings; a great building but not too big, with beautiful stained-glass windows, plus lots of fellow ale enthusiasts to talk to and some old friends to meet. Staff were very helpful and friendly as usual, good beer quality, great afternoon out. See you next year!
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Hello, do you have to purchase tickets to attend or do you just turn up?
Many thanks
Amanda
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Hi Amanda. You don’t need a ticket. Just turn up and pay on the door – £2.50 entrance fee each day, or free for CAMRA members.
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The entrance fee has now been increased from the original £2.50, as it now also includes the glass deposit and some beer tokens – please see explanation above
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Hi Thomas. Yes, dogs are welcome at the beer festival. However, it may not be ideal for dogs at the busiest times (after 6pm Friday, and after 4pm Saturday) due to the venue being much more densely packed then.
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Hi I was wanting to know if the Shrewsbury beer festival in September is going to be dog-friendly please?
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