Annual Great Welsh Beer & Cider Festival embraces the Welsh language as it continues to grow in importance
Welsh speaking volunteers will be a main focus at the Great Welsh Beer & Cider Festival when it returns to Cardiff this week.
Organised by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), which also hosts the Great British Beer Festival, the annual event will run until Saturday moves from a locally run operation to a national festival – something CAMRA says Wales deserves.
A presentation announcing national event status for 2020 will take place at the end of the three-day agenda.
Winston Wardle, festival organiser and CAMRA member, said: “Something that we’re really focusing on this year is making sure we’ve got Welsh speakers among our volunteers.
“It’s an initiative because, becoming the Welsh national festival next year, we want to make sure that we’re embracing everything that is Welsh.”
The festival has also moved from its original location, The Depot on Dumballs Road, to Glamorgan County Cricket Club in Sophia Gardens due to an increase in popularity, predicting more than 3,000 visitors this year.
“It’s a more premier venue than The Depot was”, said Wardle. “It’s split into two different rooms. We’ve got the main Sophia Hall where the cask bars are located with the concessions, then we’ve got the Learning & Discovery stand which is really our way of campaigning to the public about what goes into beer.
“They can have little samples, see what they taste like and they can talk to the brewers and cider makers about how they make their products.”
Entertainment including a pub quiz, raffles, tombola and table skittles will be available throughout, as well as over 150 real ales, real cider, craft beers and the addition of a new gin bar.
A CAMRA members only event kicked-off the festival on Wednesday at 5pm, allowing trade professionals from all over the UK to network.
