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| Festival Description |  | |
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N.B. These are the archived details for the 2011 festival. If you are looking for the current festival details ... this is not the place!!
The Bent and Bongs Charitable Trust, in association with CAMRA, present the 22nd Bent and Bongs Beer Bash, January 27 - January 29, 2011.
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| Dates and Times | | |
Opening times for the 2011 festival are:
| Thursday 27 January |
6pm - 11pm |
£5.00 |
| Friday 28 January |
5pm - 11pm |
£6.00 |
| Saturday 29 January |
12pm - 4pm
7pm - 11pm |
£5.00
£5.00 |
Admission includes programme and souvenir glass
CAMRA members receive a £1.00 discount on entry (proof of membership required)
We are again opening early for the Friday night session to try to reduce the queue times, however ...
The Friday session always fills up very quickly so please aim to arrive as early as possible to avoid having to queue
| Venue | | |
The venue is the Formby Hall, Atherton. Click here for a map.
The closest railway station is Atherton, shown on the above map (top right corner). Walking time from the station to the Formby Hall is about 5 minutes, although the return trip can take much longer after a few pints. A good place to check the train times is at The Train Line.
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| Beers | | |
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So here's the question ... what is the connection between this year's beer festival and a well known insurance company?
Catch-22 is a good place to start if you haven't read it.
With the Catch-22 theme and this year's main beneficiaries (Childflight and the North West Air Ambulance) both having links to flying it seemed a bit of a given to give the beer list an aviation feel. Why not see how many you can spot? Or sample?
Check out the 2011 beerlist.
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Mrs Otto, whom, it is said, once offered to eat Gillian McKeith for lunch as long as she could be washed down with a bottle of Brewdog Proto Punk IPA, is again be recommending a selection of brews not to be missed.
This year's recommendations from the Bent N Bongs Beer Svengali are:
Real Ales: Abbeydale Absolution, Allgates Citra, Dunham Massey Winter Warmer, Saltaire Triple Chocolate Stout, Phoenix White Monk and Elland 1872 Porter.
Draft Beers Brugse Zot, Chimay Triple, Erdinger Weissbier, Paulaner Munich Lager and Paulaner Hefeweissbier
Bottles Flying Dog Raging Bitch
| Music and Entertainment | | |
All sessions will feature live entertainment.
The bands lined up for 2011 are:
| Thursday night |
Quare Craic |
A modern twist on some traditional Irish and folk classics
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Friday night
Early guest spot |
Jayne Curry |
Straight from some of the world's most prestigious cruise liners, Jayne will be bringing out the light hearted and fun side of her vocal performace to get the Friday session off to a great start.
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Friday night
Main set |
Juke Box Heros |
Fast becoming firm festival favourites, these classic rock and rollers will be presenting another poptabuluous night of chart topping favourites
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| Saturday afternoon |
Cracked Flag |
Always a festival favourite, the fab four return for an afternoon of songs, stories and merriment.
Check them out at the Cracked Flag website.
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| Saturday night |
Spider Monkeys |
Once again the Spider Monkeys will be bringing their enormous reportoire of blues rock hits to make sure the festival ends on a high. They'll be on stage until either the clock or the beer run out. Get a sneak preview at the Spider Monkeys' website
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| Food and Festival Fodder | | |
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Sausages to rival those from ze German Christmas markets. Mmmmm. Black puddings straight from Bury. Mmmmm. Roast beef sandwiches, home made pie and if we're lucky perhaps a bit of hot pot. Hungry Joe's Festival Fodder has the lot. Put this fabulous festival fodder together with a few perfect pints and life truly doesn't get any better.
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| New To The Festival - Getting Your First Pint | | |
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As you enter the hall you will be given a festival programme and your souvenir glass. The glass will be your drinking vessel for the whole night (or afternoon) and is yours to keep when you finally head for home. Look after your glass. Treat it as your friend. Keep it out of harm's way as there are no spare glasses behind the bars.
Remember, no glass = no beer!
The festival runs on a token system. To buy beer you must first buy tokens. The tokens are then exchanged for beer, at face value.
When you first enter the hall the token desk will be on your right, past the lagers towards the front of the hall.
Once you have your tokens just head for the bar of your choice and start sampling the wonderful beers. Please do not try to pay with cash. Those nice people on the other side of the bar cannot accept it, have no way to give you any change and will just send you across to the token desk to buy tokens.
Remember, no tokens = no beer!
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The food stall is able to accept both cash and tokens.
The hall is organised into 3 bars. As you enter the hall and face the stage the bar to your right has the draught lagers, fruit beers and bottled beers. The token desk is next to the lagers closer to the front of the hall. The bar to your left is the smaller of the two real ale bars. The other real ale bar is in the seperate mini-hall off to your left. Festival fodder is at the front left, next to the stage.
The real ales are organised alphabetically (more or less) by brewery so when looking for the beer of your choice just follow the letters.
| Sponsor the Festival | | |
If you enjoy the festival, why not considering sponsoring it in 2011? Especially if you come with a group of friends? As well as the entries in the programme, sponsors are also invited to the Thursday early-doors secret tasting session. It's not to be missed!! Drop us a note if you are interested and we'll send you the details as soon as we have them.
| Merchandise | | |
Souvenir festival tee shirts will be on sale at the festival.
We are aware of a problem with last year's tee shirts due to problems reported to us by the manufacturer. If you have experenced a problem with your 2010 tee shirt (blue ones only) please drop us a note to tshirts@bentbongs.com and we'll get back to you.
| Photography | | |
Dave Green, Edwin Matthews and Steve Harrison pulled out all the (f) stops for 2010, so we're trying to get them back again for 2011. What say chaps???
If you are an experienced photographer and are willing to donate a few hours to a good cause to photograph future festivals please get in touch. Ask not what your festival can do for you, but what you can do for your festival.
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| Keep Me Informed | | |
We operate our 'better than a bookmark' service to let you you know what is happenning in the world of Bent & Bongs and to keep you informed about future beer festivals. You can register for this service here simply by telling us your email address. If you worry about giving out your email address and receiving lots of spam mail in return then please do read about why this website exists and how it treats your privacy.
Why do we call it 'better than a bookmark'? Well, let's face it, how many sites that you have bookmarked do you routinely check back with for changes? A couple of emails a year make a nice reminder to what is going on in the world of Bent & Bongs.
For fanatics, regulars and perhaps those just a little bit strange the 2010 beer festival details are here for comparison.
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