Staff Sgt. William Chadwick, Senior Airman Sam Lovejoy and Technical Sgt. Ken Weaver, all with the 48th Logistics Readiness Squadron at RAF Lakenheath, were among dozens who caught a bus from the base to attend the Cambridge Beer Festival Saturday at Jesus Green park. (Charlie Reed / S&S)
Staff Sgt. William Chadwick, Senior Airman Sam Lovejoy and Technical Sgt. Ken Weaver, all with the 48th Logistics Readiness Squadron at RAF Lakenheath, were among dozens who caught a bus from the base to attend the Cambridge Beer Festival Saturday at Jesus Green park. (Charlie Reed / S&S)
James Gilliatt and Hannah Trubshaw finish off a couple of pints Saturday afternoon at Jesus Green park in Cambridge for the city’s annual beer festival (Charlie Reed / S&S)
Chris Newstead and Wayne Bridgen chat over a few pints Saturday afternoon at Jesus Green park. (Charlie Reed / S&S)
A emergency rescue worker from East Anglian Air Ambulance monitors the crowd Saturday afternoon at Jesus Green park in Cambridge for the city’s annual beer festival. The charity supplies volunteer doctors to assist local paramedics at evens throughout the region. (Charlie Reed / S&S)
CAMBRIDGE — When the sun is shining and the beer is flowing, who needs music?
With thousands sprawled out on the grass at Jesus Green park, the scene itself at the Cambridge Beer Festival on Saturday was all the entertainment anyone there needed. Festival goers seemed to enjoy the nice weather as much as the selection of 380 beers, ciders, ales and wines at the 35th annual event.
Not even stopped-up toilets (and long lines for the ladies) in the portable bathrooms could spoil the revelry as the crowd buzzed with laughter and sun-kissed conversations well into the evening. Troops and civilians from nearby RAFs Lakenheath and Mildenhall who came by the busload left full of beer and out of harm’s way for the 40-minute journey back to base.
Sponsored by Campaign for Real Ale, or CAMRA, the Cambridge event is the second-largest outside London and the longest-running festival in the United Kingdom, according to organizers. The consumer group promotes traditionally brewed beers, ales and ciders and sponsors beer festivals throughout the United Kingdom during the summer.
"It’s our way of standing up to the big breweries," said Debbie Keane, who coordinated the Cambridge affair for CAMRA. The organization started in the early 1970s when four Brits decided that beer had taken a wrong turn in England as mass-produced brews took center stage at the pub. Claiming the commercial beers were too fizzy and lacked character, the men obviously struck a nerve: CAMRA now boasts 84,000 members and 180 branches around England.
But not everyone who hits the popular CAMRA-sponsored festivals is a beer purist.
"I prefer them light and cold versus dark and warm, but we’re here for the atmosphere," said Stansted resident Wayne Bridgen.
Log on to www.camra.org.uk to get a list of the other CAMRA beer festivals on tap this summer.
