I think I find this weirder than I might if I ran a pub or a CAMRA local branch but it seems to me that there might have been some unwritten unspoken arrangement between pubs and CAMRA not that far from CAMRA’s national administrative centre in St Albans, Hertfordshire if the pub owners quoted in the Morning Advertiser today are to be believed:
...the Harpenden Beer and Cider Festival will take business away from pubs. They questioned why CAMRA is getting involved in showing football. The Festival takes place at the Harpenden Public Halls from Thursday 10 June until Saturday 12 June, when England play the USA in South Africa. Last year’s event drew a crowd of 2,800. “We had a pubwatch meeting yesterday and all the members agreed that it was going to have a negative effect on pubs,” said Grant Hollier of the town’s Plough and Harrow pub. “We are saying that we support CAMRA because they support beer, but they are taking trade away from us.”
You know how you get my beer money? You do the best job earning it, that's how. I hope that idea is also on the agenda for most "pubwatch" meetings and not just "tips for better collusion" and "keeping an eye on those CAMRA guys" and such stuff. What really grates is that the World Cup is a national and international phenomenon that should rise above who gets how many bucks because, frankly, everybody is going to get a hell of a lot of bucks out of it.
Me? Who has the greater moral right to sell me beer during an event like this? Probably the place who treated me right on a boring Tuesday lunch back in February.
Comments
Tandleman - May 27, 2010 1:47 AM
An odd sort of spat. Beer festivals almost always bring extra trade to pubs. You go to the fest and you then pop into the pubs for something different - or at least a lot do. Some licensees even complement festivals with their own coinciding mini fests in their pub.
Seems that they need to raise their game and look for the positive. As I said odd.
MikeMcG - May 27, 2010 9:30 AM
I commented on this on the MA website (coincidentally I read today that MA started in 1794) - I'll copy my comment below.
I probably would disagree with Tandleman's point that fests almost always bring more trade when they're on, but I'd certainly argue that at their best, festivals & CAMRA's other activities encourage more people to seek out good beer in good pubs.
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My MA reply -
I suspect that the reason behind this is quite simple - the festival was probably organised before they realised that it clashed with the World Cup matches.
They were then left with the choice of screening the game, or not, or rearranging the date. They simply chose what appeared to be the best answer, with the best chance of success for the event.
To local real ale landlords/ladies I'd say "suck it up" - it's not the end of the world, it's a couple of days, but if poss, make the most of it - advertise yourself as a champion of good / local cask beer & hopefully reap the rewards of this event which seeks to promote the best of fresh craft beer.
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Tandleman - May 27, 2010 10:40 AM
Mike - Just ask the Manchester publicans when the National Winter AlesFest was on if you disagree. Still, I suppose it varies.