It’s the most wonderful time… for a beer! - National Winter Ales Festival in Norwich

As organisers of Norwich Beer Festival, we are pleased to announce there is another chance to sample real ales in Norwich from across the country at the National Winter Ales Festival in February.

The Norwich & Norfolk branch has been awarded the National Winter Ale Festival (NWAF) by CAMRA, and will run from 21-25 February 2017 at the St Andrew's and Blackfriars' medieval friary halls – the home of the popular Norwich CAMRA Beer Festival.
 
The national festival will run for three consecutive years in Norwich.  There are no tickets for NWAF and admission is by payment on the door.  Tuesday 21 February is for CAMRA members only and will run from 5.30pm to 10.30pm (with a preview for Press and Trade in the afternoon).  All other days are open to members and non-members alike and opening times will be 12.00noon to 10.30pm 22-25 February.   

Alongside the February festival, the CAMRA branch will be organising The Fridge from Saturday to Saturday 18-25 February with special festival beers and events hosted across Norwich’s many pubs and brew houses.  Details will be available in participating pubs and on the NWAF Website.  For more information on NWAF visit www.nwaf.org.uk.

Rob Whitmore, the festival organiser, said: ‘We are proud to be hosting CAMRA’s National Winter Ale Festival here in Norwich and hope that both CAMRA members and non-members will enjoy the array of ales on offer.  There will be the darker ales, more traditionally associated with a Winter festival, plus a large variety of ruby and lighter hoppy ales, as well as perries and ciders’

As always at the national festival, the Champion Winter Beers of Britain will compete to find a winner is each category – Strong Milds/Old Ales, Porters, Stouts and Barley Wines/Strong Old Ales.  The overall winner will also be selected and announced at the festival.  Local entrants include Adnams, Cambridge Brew House, Green Jack and Milton.

Jenny Bach, Press Officer for Norwich CAMRA added: ‘With reduced or free entry to many local festivals, including NWAF, Norwich, Peterborough and Cambridge, to name a few, might this be a good time to consider CAMRA membership? Current benefits include Wetherspoons vouchers and discounts with National Express, Merlin Group, Red Letter Days and many others, this might just be the perfect present to yourself!’

For more information on the festival, admission prices and The Fringe please visit the website nwaf.org.uk.

Competition is launched early for the logo for Norwich Beer Festival 40th year

The annual competition has just been launched by members of the Norwich & Norfolk branch of CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) to find the new logo for the 40th Norwich Beer Festival, taking place from Monday 23th October until Saturday 28th October 2017.

The deadline for competition entrants is Monday 27th March 2017 and Norwich & Norfolk CAMRA are looking for designs to celebrate the 40th year of the festival, as well as depicting the familiar dragon.

• The logo competition has commenced early this year as the branch will be hosting the National Winter Ales Festival, running from Tuesday 21st February until Saturday 25th February 2017 and be held at the St Andrew's and Blackfriars' medieval friary halls.

The Norwich & Norfolk Branch has been awarded the National Winter Ale Festival by CAMRA and will run it for three consecutive years in Norwich.

Tickets for NWAF are only available on the door and opening times will be 5.30 pm to 10.30 pm on the 21st February and 12.00 noon until 10.30 pm 22nd - 25th February.
  
Alongside the February festival, the CAMRA branch will be organising a fringe festival from Saturday 18th until Saturday 25th  February with special festival events to be hosted across Norwich’s many pubs and brew houses.

For more information on NWAF visit www.nwaf.org.uk. 

Launching the logo competition is one of the first tasks for the beer festival and the winning design will be one of the prime marketing tools for the festival and will be featured on the collectible festival glasses.

The members and volunteers can feel proud of another successful Beer Festival in 2016. Now the preparations for the popular annual event, which receives around 19,000 festival goers, can commence for 2017.

The festival’s team of organisers have already started to plan the 2017 October Beer Festival when 300 volunteers will come together again to launch the 40th Norwich Beer Festival.

Rob Derbridge, the festival organiser for 2016, said: ‘We are hopeful that we will receive an extra large number entries for our 40th beer festival. We always receive entries on various themes, although they must include a dragon in some form, but the entrants can choose a setting or background of their choice.

‘This year we are looking for entries which will also celebrate the 40th year. We always look forward to having a tough decision in selecting the successful winner’.

As always, the most important element is that a dragon must be included within the design, although abstract is acceptable, also a maximum five colours (four is preferable), including any black or white parts of the design.

The 2017 logo should also celebrate the 40th year of the Norwich Beer Festival.

Entrants are asked to specify "Adult" or "Under-18" and include their name, contact details and age (if under-18) on the back of the paper design or within the email.

The main winner will be judged by the organising committee at the planning and will receive £100 along with a selection of merchandising at the festival featuring their logo.  There will be two runner-up prizes of complementary festival tickets and also the best under-18 entrant will win a book voucher.

Emailed entries should be in a computer readable format (JPEG, TIFF, PNG, PDF, Postscript, GIMP, Inkscape, Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw); no MS Word document files please.

Entries (one per sheet or email and with a maximum size A4) can be sent to ‘2017 40th Norwich Beer Festival Logo Competition’, 4 Rectory Close, Newton Flotman, Norwich, Norfolk, NR15 1PZ or email to beerfestival@norwichcamra.org.uk by Monday 27th March 2017 at the latest please. 

All entries will become the property of the Norwich & Norfolk branch of the Campaign for Real Ale and may be used for display and publicity purposes.