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| Festival Description |  | |
N.B. These are the archived details for the 2016 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 27th Bent and Bongs Beer Bash, February 4 - February 6, 2016.
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| Dates and Times | | |
Opening times for the 2016 festival are:
| Thursday 4 February |
6pm - 11pm |
£3 |
| Friday 5 February |
4pm - 11pm |
£5 |
| Saturday 6 February |
12pm - 9pm |
£5 |
After some very positive feedback from last year we will again be opening straight through on Saturday. And yes, Cracked Flag will be on earlier as well!
| Venue | | |
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Right - Listen Up!
The venue for 2016 is the Atherton Roller Rink.
To avoid any confusion we'll say that again. The venue for 2016 is NOT the Formby Hall, it is the Atherton Roller Rink.
That's THE ATHERTON ROLLER RINK.
OK - If you turn up at the wrong place, it's out of our hands now!
Here's a map - to the location of THE ATHERTON ROLLER RINK!
The closest railway station is Atherton, shown on the above map (top right corner). Walking time from the station to the Roller Rink is around 5 minutes. A good place to check the train times is at The Train Line.
To walk from the station to the Roller Rink, exit the station and walk down to the traffic lights. Turn right onto the main road and walk until you see Asda on the left. There's a car park immediately before Asda and the Roller Rink is down there.
Google has an excellent little map of walking directions.
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| Beers | | |
If the Beer Bash was an episode of Friends, 2016 would be called The One That Very Nearly Didn't Happen.
So rather than a specific theme for the beer list, 2016 is simply going to be Great Beers.
Drink them. Enjoy them. And be really really happy that there's a 2016 festival at all.
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| Music and Entertainment | | |
All sessions will feature live entertainment.
The bands lined up for 2016 are:
| Thursday night |
One Hand Clapping |
This traditional Irish folk band are back to get the festival off to a toe tapping start.
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| Friday night |
The Frequency |
tbc
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| Saturday 1pm to 3pm (ish) |
Cracked Flag |
The festival favourites are back to their early spot on Saturday so that Dave, Pete and Paul can entertain you with their mix of songs, stories and general merriment.
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| Saturday 4pm to 8pm (ish) |
Juke Box Heroes |
They're back and they're already chomping at the bit to bring you your favourite rock n roll tracks until either the clock or the beer runs out. Ladies, best dust off those dancing shoes because you're gonna need 'em.
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| Food and Festival Fodder | | |
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All sessions will have a selection of wonderfully tasty festival fodder.
We're talking sausages. Different ones every night.
We're talking Bury black puddings, roast beef sarnies and if you're really really lucky some home made hot pot. It's the kind of food that sticks to your ribs and keeps you warm for days. Couple it with a few perfect pints and you are truly in food and drink heaven.
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| New To The Festival - Getting Your First Pint | | |
When you walk into the Roller Rink main entrance, head a few steps to your left for admission. Here you also collect your souvenir glass and festival programme. We can't stress this enough. Look after your glass. Your glass is your drinking vessel for the whole session and is yours to keep when you head for home. Treat your glass as your friend. Hold it carefully. Keep it out of harm's way. There are no spare glasses kept behind the bars so when you turn up for a drink you need your glass.
Remember! No glass = no beer!
The festival runs on a token system. To buy beer you must first buy tokens. The tokens are exchanged for beer, at face value.
The token desk is at the admission end of the roller rink. As you go through the doors from the entrance into the main rink area the tokens will be a little bit ahead to your left.
Once you have your tokens you can head for your bar of 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 to the token desk to buy tokens.
Remember! No tokens = no beer!
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The food folks can accept both cash and tokens.
The rink is organised into 2 bars. The bar to the left will have the real ales. The bar to the right will have the draught lagers, fruit beers and ciders.
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 | | |
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.
All the details for sponsoring the 2016 festival are available here.
Or click here if you only want the sponsorship form for 2016.
If you want to know more or if you want to take out a sponsor's package, email us at: sponsors@bentnbongs.com and we will get in touch.
| Photography | | |
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Dave Green, Richard Moore and Steve Harrison pulled out all the (f) stops for 2015. We're trying to get them all back again for 2016. What say chaps???
But we can always use more photographers. If you have some experience 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
The festival has adopted 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 anyone who wants to be nostalgic about The Formby Hall the 2015 beer festival details are here for posterity.
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