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| Festival Description |  | |
N.B. These are the archived details for the 2014 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 25th Bent and Bongs Beer Bash, January 30 - February 1, 2014.
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| Dates and Times | | |
Opening times for the 2014 festival are:
| Thursday 30 January |
6pm - 11pm |
£5* |
| Friday 31 January |
4pm - 11pm |
£7* |
| Saturday 1 February |
12pm - 4pm
7pm - 11pm |
£6
£6 |
Please note that we are opening one hour earlier (4pm) again on Friday this year
* - Admission reduced after 9:30pm on Thursday (£3) and Friday (£5)
... but only if there is no queue and there is space in the hall!!
Thursday only - £1 off for anyone wearing Beatles fancy dress, up until 9:30pm
| Venue | | |
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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.
To walk from the station to the Formby Hall, exit the station and walk down to the traffic lights. Turn right onto the main road and walk down to the second set of traffic lights (the town hall will be on your right and The Concert Inn will be on your left). Turn left (at The Concert) onto High Street and then take the second left up to the hall.
Google has an excellent little map of walking directions.
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| Beers | | |
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With 2014 being the 25th Bent and Bongs Beer Bash the beerlist has a Silver feel to it. There are plenty of silver beers and a bunch of silver award winners as well. Take a look at the 2014 beerlist to see what tickles your fancy.
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| Music and Entertainment | | |
All sessions will feature live entertainment.
The bands lined up for 2014 are:
| Thursday night |
The Sixties |
A tribute to the Beatles and the sounds of the sixties. The band might look familiar to festival regulars but the music is all new, or ... errrr ... old. Beatles fancy dress at the ready ...
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| Friday night |
Run Out The Guns |
This four piece accoustic line up brings as much character to their music as the beers do to your taste buds. Forget any middle of the road blandness and get set to jig along with their fusion of country, blues, rock and perhaps a sprinking of Irish folk music. Dare we even suggest they might throw in the odd sea shanty? Surely not!
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| Saturday afternoon |
Cracked Flag |
Would Saturday afternoon be complete without Cracked Flag? Of course not!
Dave, Pete and Paul will be back with their unique brand of songs, stories and merriment.
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| Saturday night |
Juke Box Heroes |
Back with their full set the Juke Box Heroes will have the festival rocking until either the time or the beer runs out. It's all your favourite rock and roll tracks bundled up into one evening of fun. Dancing is optional ... ahhh, who are we trying to kid ... dance away to your heart's content.
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| Food and Festival Fodder | | |
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All sessions will have a selection of wonderfully tasty festival fodder.
Fantastic sausages, Bury black puddings, roast beef sandwiches and if we're really lucky some hot pot. What more could anyone wish for? Put this fabulous festival fodder together with a few perfect pints and life truly doesn't get any better. (At least not without taking your clothes off!)
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| 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!
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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 | | |
Details about sponsorship for 2014 are available on our Sponsors Page.
If you are a regular sponsor it is also worth taking 5 minutes to read about how the sponsors package has changed for 2014.
If you are coming with a group of friends, why not consider sponsoring the festival? It's fun, it's friendly, and if you can all get to the sponsors' hour on Thursday it's cheaper than paying on the door.
If you want to know more or if you want to take out a sponsor's package, drop us an email and we will get in touch.
| Merchandise | | |
Current merchandise available:
Any items of festival related merchandise we have available will be listed here on eBay
We currently have a few 2012 polo shirts available that are not listed on eBay. If you want one, drop us an email and we will sort it out for you.
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 | | |
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Dave Green, Edwin Matthews and Steve Harrison pulled out all the (f) stops for 2013. We're trying to get them all back again for 2014. 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. Remember ... 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.
If you want more Bent and Bongs in your life, you can follow the blog at blog.bentnbongs.com and for more still, become a fan on Facebook or follow us on Twitter: @bentnbongs
For the first time this year we are adopting the hashtag #bentnbongs for chatter about the festival. Why not tweet what your drinking, or your favourite beer of the festival or even just sing along with the band.
For fanatics, regulars and perhaps those just a little bit strange the 2013 beer festival details are here for comparison.
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