THANK YOU- Hucknall Beer Festival 2026

THANK YOU- Hucknall Beer Festival 2026
As always, our annual post festival post is rather long but thanks to all the amazing people who helped us deliver the Hucknall Beer Festival 2026 is VERY much needed.
This year’s event has been our most successful to date, not just in terms of income raised but also the wonderful atmosphere and community memories created…….
Now we’ve cleared the casks, took down the scaffolding, washed the towels, cleaned the floors and the borrowed bars and stillage have been collected and we’ve stored the glasses safely away and had a few days to rest it’s time to take a pause and look back and say a few words of thanks to all those who have made the 2026 Hucknall Beer Festival the great success it’s been.
We went into this year with a degree of nervousness. It has been a challenging time for the hospitality and brewing industry. The pressures facing pubs, breweries and suppliers are well documented, and we’ve all seen the sad and too-frequent closures of much-loved venues, businesses and the loss of some incredible people from the trade. Rising costs affect us all — both as organisers and as customers.
As a charity, committing our own funds to stage a beer and cider festival in the current climate is a significant financial risk. We know not everyone realises that it is our Centre — a registered charity — that financially underpins and organises the event (with wonderful support from Nottingham CAMRA and Torkard Cider). Like many organisations, we continue to navigate fluctuating running costs and income levels — but we remain committed to hosting this event for our town, county and beyond.
We’re so incredibly proud and deeply humbled to say that this has been our most successful festival with an increase in both sales and support this year and we appreciate everyone who was dedicated and focused on the charitable aims as well as delivering an amazing event experience for all those attending.
We’re so thankful for the love and support for Hucknall Beer Festival once again and that our largest fundraiser, which is supported by Nottingham CAMRA and an army of kind-hearted volunteers paid off helping us raise much needed funds to reinvest into the fabric and facilities of our community venue for the many users who call us home.
From the brewers/sponsors hour on Thursday through to closing on Sup Up Sunday, there was a genuine buzz about the venue. Positivity. Community. Connection the John Godber Centre was THE place to be last week and we’ve loved reading your comments, seeing your photos, and hearing your feedback this week about the event and its organisation. It’s been a joy to know that we’ve once again played a small part in your Hucknall memories.
We’re grateful the event was a financial success — because that security allows us to continue serving our community. But even more importantly, we’re thankful for the togetherness. For the returning faces and the new ones. For the cheers raised, the conversations shared, and the reminder that even in challenging times, community spirit is alive and well. Seeing our venue filled with laughter, conversation and shared enjoyment was something truly special. You can see from our photo albums and videos last weekend how much fun everyone had!
We give thanks to the generous support of all who attended, whether enjoying the beer and cider on offer or just coming along to enjoy the event and make use of the Centre’s licenced bars or just the odd cuppa.
Thanks now need to be said to a few important people that worked so hard to make this event happen….
Firstly, our festival planning group who are with us in planning the festival throughout the year.
Our core team Andrew, Ray and myself have worked together since planning for the 2012 festival (that first one in 2011 I missed out on!) and every year we look at things in just as much detail as that first one, looking at what we can do to improve and expand the event for the next year and we’re never complacent or take for granted our past successes.
We are incredibly grateful for the ongoing support of two key gentlemen who are at the heart of the event, our two original committee members Andrew Ludlow from the Nottingham CAMRA branch and Ray Blockley, formerly of Torkard Cider. I have the honour to say this EVERY year, but it remains so true that they are the unsung heroes of the beer and cider festival.
Their contribution in the months leading up to the festival — and throughout the weekend itself — is invaluable. We could not run the event without their experience, dedication, and enthusiasm.
They fully understand that the Hucknall Beer Festival is first and foremost a fundraiser for the John Godber Centre, while also recognising and balancing the standards and expectations of a CAMRA beer festival. Their depth of knowledge, steady guidance, and genuine love of real ale and cider help shape the festival into the success it has become.
They attend meetings, read and respond to every email (and there are honestly thousands each year!) They work with us to solve every question or issue raised, many months leading up to the event, and staff the event across the weekend from opening to closing time operating the bars giving their time freely, stepping away from their own busy schedules purely to support the community.
Sadly, Ray was not able to be with us in person this year, but he still remotely championed the festival and undertook all of the planning, ordering, box artwork and programme details for us for the cider. He’s liaised with cider makers, delivery suppliers and organised for all the onsite jobs he usually does to be completed. There’s a real sense of care, knowledge and local pride poured into every cider and perry choice and this year saw our largest list at opening. For an 8th year Ray also designed us the Hucknall Beer Festival logo which was used on the festival glasses and on the volunteer and staff t-shirts to continue our celebration of Hucknall’s fine heritage. This year Charles Kempe, a stained glass designer was used as the image on the logo in his memory.
Andrew works tirelessly behind the scenes coordinating with brewers to shape our impressive beer list — and that’s no small task. It involves plenty of back-and-forth conversations: checking availability, gathering tasting notes, confirming styles, arranging deliveries, and ensuring everything arrives exactly when it should — especially the competition entries.
Andrew carefully weighs up style, cost, quality and potential wastage, all while ensuring we offer a line-up that excites and represents the best of beer styles. He’s always complemented on the selection of ales on offer with such positive feedback.
We were proud to support Nottingham CAMRA once again in delivering the fourth Spyke Golding competition — a small way of recognising the kindness and support they’ve shown us over the years.
Both ensure the quality of the beer and cider is top notch and are always happy to share their wealth of knowledge and passion with others. We are deeply thankful for their continued commitment to the Hucknall Beer Festival and the John Godber Centre. Hucknall is fortunate to have such generous and community-spirited individuals, and we truly could not do this without them.
Alongside these two greats there were so many more people who helped us in the lead up and delivery of the event last weekend –
🍻Sadly Ian Raynor , our fourth member of our planning crew and Director was unable to be as involved as he’d have liked but still remotely checked in leading up and during the event and keeping us focused (and popped in to quality control the right side of the bar!)
💜Thank you to Adrian, our Operating Board Chairman and Director, continued to support all things technical, taking care of the website, artwork, graphics and the all-important programme — making sure the festival always looks professional and polished.
Designing the programme is no small task. It pulls together everything the festival represents: who we are, what we do, our sponsors’ adverts, the full beer and cider lists, event details, and the artwork you see around the venue. No matter how late the request or how small the detail, Adrian somehow pulls it all together with such kindness. Despite his own busy schedule, he never says no, no matter how late in the day and once again he created something we’re incredibly proud of.
He may not officially sit on the planning group, but he’s very much our fifth, unofficial member — a steady voice of support and encouragement whenever we need it. We’re hugely grateful for his time, his patience, and the kindness he shows our team year after year.
🍻To those spreading the word about the event, taking photos and updating our social channels for us. Becky has taken over the mantle from our dear friend Peter to support us in capturing the memories of the event posting some amazing videos on our social media channels across the week from set up to clear down. Richard Speight also helped with regular postings of the champion beer competition and helping to reply to questions and spread the word
💜In the past we’ve given a nod to our trusty photocopier but we now call on the assistance of Nottingham Printing Ltd to help us out with the printing of the programme, Sally and Matt do such a wonderful job turning around the programmes in 24 hours for us so they deserve a special shout out for being so great at what they do, the quality is so impressive and we wouldn’t go back to printing in house ever again!
🍻 To Nottingham CAMRA and our tireless serving volunteers — your dedication, time and energy are extraordinary. An army of kind-hearted people to help make this event happen.
*To Richard S, Terry J, and James L the dream cellar team of the event. From set up to clean down they were a credit and a joy to work with once more and have become a key group of the event, taking great care to ensure the beers were set up and service ready, changing casks promptly and swapping our reserves as well as clearing down at the end of the event.
*To Dick D and Stuart W thank you for your time and support on setup day with the cellar crew and also to James for helping us with the dreaded sheeting the Sunday before the week had started.
*We enjoyed welcoming Luke B from Monkey Bridge Cider to the team to help with the cider set up and to serve this year and *Angela did a wonderful job stepping in to oversee the cider corner and looking after everyone and the ciders throughout the weekend. *Thom, we give a special nod for his “politeness” to keeping us smiling all weekend with Angela.
*Thanks to Joanna and Paul B, John B, Owen M, Marie M, Dave G and Karen H, for their time and support this weekend, not just physically at the event but also with their online comments and support for the festival. Also, to John for helping with promotion of the event to CAMRA nationally and championing membership during the weekend.
*Support comes in many forms and to Anthony and Karen H, and Paul D we say thanks and though sadly not able to be the wrong side of the bar with us this year still give us kind words of support and enjoyed the right side. Steve W for the cask signage template and final checks of the list. Gail B, always a star who this year magically appeared whenever we mentioned her name in relation to cider supplies. Also, to Karl who sadly couldn’t be with us but wanted to be.
*We were so privileged to welcome back friends and volunteers from Rotary Club of Hucknall for helping serve the beers and ciders on Saturday and also members of Mansfield & Ashfield CAMRA
It is always a genuine pleasure to work alongside the incredible volunteers who give their time both in the lead-up to the festival and across the weekend itself (and sincere apologies if we’ve missed anyone by name). There’s a real team spirit that runs through the group and we have so much fun with them all in what is a long week but the kindness, generosity, knowledge and good humour our volunteers bring with them makes all the difference and we are indebted to them for their support.
💜We also give a huge thanks to Helen for magically appearing with cake supplies to keep us going for the week, the best boss! Also, to all those within the Church and leadership family who called in or messaged us with words of encouragement.
🍻To our dear friends at Lincoln Green Brewing Company the whole team deserve a mention and loaning us equipment to help serve the beer for the weekend and helping with the delivery and collection of other beers for the event. Mr Anthony Hughes always a champion supporter of Hucknall Beer Festival and the John Godber Centre who will just always be a valued friend to our charity and we thank them for the extra donations of beer which helps our charities finances and arranging tickets for the Castle Beer Festival in April to support our raffle fundraising.
💜To all the breweries and cider makers who delivered beer and cider to us and also came along to support us during the festival thank you! Also, to the 10 breweries who created new brews as part of the Shield challenge Lincoln Green Brewing Company Blue Monkey Brewery, Lenton Lane Brewery Milestone Brewery Hollow Stone Brewing Co., Beermats Brewing, Magpie Brewery, Castle Rock Brewery, The Grumpy Fish Brew Co, and Two Matts Brewing Company we appreciated the 10 great new beers to enjoy showcasing your brewing skills and passion for your craft
🍻We enjoyed the Thursday brewers, sponsors and press session immensely and getting to see the regular faces from the local brewing industry. Congratulations to the Spyke Golding Challenge winner Magpie Brewery and thank you to all those who entered and voted. The full list and brewery list can be found here – http://www.johngodbercentre.co.uk/the-spyke-golding…/
💜We were pleased to welcome Alpha gyros and Chuck Waggon to the event for the first time, their food was amazing. Thank you to Jenny, Avril, John, Susan and Josie for preparing the cobs to sell for those after lighter options and to Spelt & Rye for supplying our cobs this year. Abi continues to do a wonderful job with the bakery and we’re so grateful she’s continuing the support and sponsoring of the food offering. Also, to those who volunteered time to but due to the size of the kitchen we couldn’t accept everyone’s kind offers to help but appreciated the offers.
🍻To HEE scaffolding for providing the scaffolding to us for the week, setting it up and removing it from site, their generosity is greatly appreciated and goes a long way to helping us keep the costs of the festival low.
💜Thank you to Shipstone’s Brewery and Lincoln Green Brewing Company for the additional stillage to help support this and hold our 108 beers and ciders.
🍻To our generous financial sponsors, NG Pest Control Beer Shack Hucknall KBL Electrical & Mechanical Services The Window Depot Nottingham Ltd 1 For All Accounting Angels Ltd The Pears Family, Spelt & Rye, The Robin Hood & Little John @Wildkatz Gymnastics Specsavers Hucknall, The Hideout at Hucknall, plus new sponsors The Green Dragon Inn Hucknall Arunothai and Coyles Kitchen And Joinery Services. Also, private sponsor John. Having financial sponsorship in advance does go a little way to ensuring some of those big beer bills can be paid if no one showed up and bought beer.
💜Thank you to the breweries and businesses who kindly donated raffle prizes or beer to help us raise further funds for the charity this was greatly appreciated and we fortunately doubled our raffle income this year – Lincoln Green Brewing Company, Magpie Brewery, Pheasantry Brewery, The Grainstore Brewery Tap, Blue Monkey Brewery RedDog Ales Woodforde’s Brewery Sneinton Cider Company, Bang The Elephant Brewing Co.. and Hollow Stone Brewing Co.. / Shipstone’s
🍻To Blurred Mondays for entertaining us on Saturday evening creating an incredible atmosphere once more, they really do bring the party with sing along’ s and plenty of dancing.
💜To Darren and Sue at F and F Promotional for creating our blue festival T-shirts and strengthening the designs with their creativity, they really did stand out. Also enabling us to sell festival t shirts directly, we hope those who purchased enjoy their mementos.
🍻To our John Godber Centre and St Mary’s Trading Company staff, finding the words to truly do you all justice is a challenge. To our Duty Managers, Becky, Donny and Jenny, our support team members Claire and Jacqui and our bar team Matt, Matthew and Peter. Your dedication never waivers, you always go above and beyond daily but in festival week, our most intense time you all make the hard work lighter, the long hours brighter, and the whole weekend something to look forward to. From the meticulous preparation beforehand, the controlled chaos during the festival itself, or the clear-up long after the last pint is poured, you carry it all with professionalism, care and good humour. Plans change, challenges pop up, and yet somehow everything just works! We see more of each other than we do our own families in this week but you make it special and such a laugh, the way you support one another — and me — you truly are a dream to work with (even the times you resemble squabbling siblings – you absolutely know who you are!) That fun is part of what makes this weekend less like work, team Purple — you are simply the best, and we are so grateful for each and every one of you and everything you did last week 💜
💜A HUGE thank you, as always, has to go to the family members of all the above people who understand when their loved ones give up precious time to help us deliver the Hucknall Beer Festival, we are indebted to them also for their support of the festival, particularly our younger family members
🍻And finally, to every single person who attended the festival. Whether you bought tokens, sampled the beers and ciders, took home a festival glass, bought food, took part in the raffle, made a donation or just came along to enjoy the atmosphere – thank you. If it was your first visit or you were a returning regular your support means so much. It was a genuine pleasure to welcome you all to Hucknall Beer & Cider Festival at the John Godber Centre last weekend. Together, you helped us showcase what a wonderful place Hucknall is as a town and we’re incredibly proud that our community venue sits right at the heart of it. We also loved welcoming international visitors this year, Kansas and Washington were on the list of places visitors have travelled from this year!
So much work goes into the preparation of Hucknall Beer Festival behind the scenes, months of work goes into the planning, days of hard work and physical graft goes into its delivery and clear up so to all the above people (and anyone I may have forgotten) I say a GREAT BIG THANK YOU from me personally and on behalf of the St Mary’s Trading Company Directors, the John Godber Centre Operating Board and PCC we are deeply grateful for your advice, encouragement and hands-on support we could not do it without you.
Our building was opened in 1907 following the vision of Canon John Godber to have a hall in the centre of the town to benefit local people and provide the community with a place to meet and socialise. I’m still sure he would not have ever imagined a beer festival being hosted to support its ongoing development, but we do continue to meet his wishes, and we raised a lot of money to continue to achieve his aims. Times are hard for so many, and for our wonderful industry and as a charity we give a heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone for your time, support, financial contributions and overall enjoyment of the Beer Festival weekend.
Your support of Hucknall Beer & Cider Festival 2026 has helped us raise vital funds to continue improving the facilities of the John Godber Centre (Registered Charity No. 1132272), ensuring it remains a welcoming space for our town for years to come.
Thank you ALL for being part of it. We’re already looking forward to next year and doing it all over again in 2027!
Cheers to you all,
Kim Pears, JGC Centre Manager
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