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Festival Description N.B. These are the archived details for the 2012 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 23rd Bent and Bongs Beer Bash, January 26 - January 28, 2012. Dates and Times Opening times for the 2012 festival are: Thursday 26 January 6pm - 11pm £6.00 Friday 27 January 5pm - 11pm £7.00 Saturday 28 January 12pm - 4pm 7pm - 11pm £6.00 £6.00 Admission includes programme and souvenir glass CAMRA members receive a £1.00 discount on entry (proof of membership required) All sessions tend to fill up quickly so please aim to arrive as early as possible to guarantee entry; or alternatively look at one of the premium sponsorship packages that includes priority entry tickets that bypass any 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 around 5 - 10 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. Beers With 2012 being the year of the Olympics, this year's beers have been chosen to include a good collection of gold medal winners, plus a whole bunch of beers with 'gold' in their name. All in all, there are more golds in there than in the combined cabinets of Sir Steve Redgrave and Sir Chris Hoy. If you're stuck for choice, just do a Tom Daley and dive straight in. Check out the 2012 beer list. Rumoured to know more about beer than bankers know about money, Mrs Otto, The Bent and Bongs Beer Svengali, has again graced the festival with a handful of personal recommendations. These are: Real Ales: Abbeydale Absolution, Black Iris Intergalactic IPA, Dark Star American Pale Ale, Dark Star Critical Mass, Hawkshead Windermere Pale, Red Willow Chocolate Stout, St Austell’s Proper Job, Thornbridge St Petersburg, Two Roses Black Beauty Stout, Blackedge Hop Pale Ale, Blackedge Pike Pale, Algates California, Prospect Whatever and Summer Wine Diablo Draught Beers: Westmalle Double, La Chouffe, Flying Dog Old Scratch, Dortmunder Union and Anchor Steam Bottled Beers: Mongozo Coconut, NØgne ØSaison, Meantime Wheat Beer Champagne, Fraoch Heather Ale, Flying Dog Doggie Style Do remember that many of Mrs Otto's recommended brews are at the power lifter's end of the weight lifting scale. They're not for lightweights! If you plan to try them all, think of the marathon rather than the sprint. And whatever you do, don't try to beat Usain Bolt and finish them in nine and a half seconds. Music and Entertainment All sessions will feature live entertainment. The bands lined up for 2012 are: Thursday night One Hand Clapping This traditional Irish folk band are back to get the festival of to a toe tapping start. Friday night Juke Box Heros The festival's favourite rock and rollers will be playing a longer set than usual packed with poptabulous chart topping tunes. Ladies - you'd best be bringing your dancing shoes! Saturday afternoon Cracked Flag Once again the fab four return for an afternoon of songs, stories and merriment. Check them out at the Cracked Flag website. Saturday night Spider Monkeys Rumoured to have an updated set the Spider Monkeys will again be finishing the festival with a collection of blues rock hits to make sure the festival ends on a high note. They'll be on stage until either the clock or the beer run out. Food and Festival Fodder Festival fodder will again be available and with 2012 being the year of the Olympics they'll be offering the athlete's choice in sausages, hot pot, roast beef and of course, genuine Bury black puddings. New To The Festival - Getting Your First Pint As you enter the hall you will be given your souvenir glass and festival programme. 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! 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 2012 will bring a better variety of sponsorship packages than ever before. The main sponsorship package puts your name and logo on all the glasses, the staff shirts and on a banner above the stage. You also get the back cover of the programme and alongside all this you get 25 normal tickets and 25 priority entry tickets. Footfall to the festival is around 4,000 people and many of them keep their programmes and glasses for years into the future so it's excellent exposure for your company. A handful of premium sponsorship packages are available for the 4 bars, the entertainment, the tickets and tokens and the smokers wristbands. These packages include 6 priority entry tickets as well your company details displayed alongside the item you are sponsoring (a banner over a bar, shadow printed on the tokens, etc.) The standard barrel sponsorship package is available. This includes an entry in the programme along with 10 normal entry tickets. All sponsorship packages include admission to the Thursday evening sponsor's only tasting session ... where the beer is free! Yep! Free beer! If you enjoy the festival and come as a group of friends, why not consider a sponsorship package for 2012? When you split the cost out across a group of people it isn't much different to paying individually, plus you get access to the benefits like admission to the Thursday evening sponsors tasting session. If you would like more details, drop us a note to sponsors@bentnbongs.com and we will get straight back to you. Merchandise Current merchandise available: Any items of festival related merchandise we have available will be listed here on eBay We also have a handful of the 2011 staff shirts. These are the hard-to-come-by shirts worn by the festival staff. They are usually allocated only to staff members volunteering at the festival and are not usually on sale to the general public. If you would like one, drop us an email and we'll set one up for you. Photography Dave Green, Edwin Matthews and Steve Harrison pulled out all the (f) stops for 2011, so we're trying to get them back again for 2012. 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. 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. If you want more Bent and Bongs in your life, you can follow the blog at blog.bentnbongs.com and for more still, follow us on Twitter: @bentnbongs For fanatics, regulars and perhaps those just a little bit strange the 2011 beer festival details are here for comparison.

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