Learn your malts as the Kidbrooke Beer and Cider Festival returns to Charlton Park RFC for the eighth edition. Over in Woolwich, meanwhile, there’s a Free From Festival and a Keto and Low Carb Festival to rekindle a love of eating among those with food intolerances…
Kidbrooke Beer and Cider Festival
Fancy a pint? Not an icy, fizzy lager or ‘craft’ IPA, mind, but a real ale or flat, proper cider?
If your answer is yes, then make your way to the eighth Kidbrooke Beer and Cider Festival, which is running over three days, from Thursday – Saturday, at Charlton Park RFC this week.
The festival is one of hundreds of local events run by CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale), a community of beer drinkers passionate about ensuring real ale, cider and perry is sold in pubs in every community.
The organisation was founded back in 1971 by four real ale enthusiasts – Michael Hardman, Jim Makin, Bill Mellor and Graham Lees – in protest to the ‘Bix Six’ brewers (Allied, Bass, Courage, Scottish & Newcastle, Watneys and Whitbread) monopolising entire regions of the country and getting rid of hand pumps in pubs, to instead sell kegged beer forced up by C02.
Held at Charlton Park RFC, the Kidbrooke festival always falls just after the rugby season has finished, and typically welcomes club members and their families among its crowd of 1,000 visitors who descend on the grounds over the three-day event.
Whichever day you visit, expect a minimum of 40 real ales, and 20 real ciders and perrys.
You’ll be drinking local, too, as if last year’s festival is anything to go by, roughly half the brews will come from regional south-east London breweries. If all those malts make you peckish, look to the food trucks serving hearty hog roasts and more.
Kidbrooke Beer and Cider Festival is taking place at Charlton Park RFC, 60a Broad Walk, Kidbrooke, London SE3 8NB. May 26 – 28, 12pm – 10:30pm. Admission: £5 public/£3 members. www.sel.camra.org.uk/diary/festivals/
Free From Festival, Woolwich Works
Living with food intolerances can make eating out a tricky and often boring thing to navigate – even in the age of gluten-free bread and multiple alternatives to dairy milk.
At the Free From Festival – proudly the UK’s first gluten, dairy and refined sugar-free knees up – you can let your stomach roam free, sampling tasters and tucking into full plates of thoughtfully made dishes without having to worry about the consequences.
The touring festival is heading to Woolwich Works this Saturday, and promises street food, savoury snacks, sugar-free desserts, gluten-free beer and organic wines which, with their lack of sulphites, are believed to be more hangover friendly.
Many of the traders are independent, artisan producers, so you’ll be supporting small businesses, too.
A programme of talks will inspire your own free-from journey, while demonstrations from nutritionists will show you how to eat well.
Woolwich Works, The Fireworks Factory, 11 No 1 Street, Royal Arsenal, London SE18 6HD. May 27, 11am – 6pm. Admission: £10/FREE for under 12s www.woolwich.works/events/free-from-festival
Keto and Low Carb Food Festival, Woolwich Works
Also at Woolwich Works this weekend is a festival hoping to make food fun again for diabetics and those for whom a keto diet (low in carbohydrates) has been prescribed.
Feel empowered for your journey by listening in on talks from nutritionists and industry professionals, and discover replacements to your old favourite foods that won’t compromise your quality of life.
A range of street food vendors will be cooking up tasty dishes on site, while there will be plenty of cook-at-home products and keto-friendly snacks to sample and stock up on for later.
Cocktails have been promised too – it’s a festival after all!
Woolwich Works, The Fireworks Factory, 11 No 1 Street, Royal Arsenal, London SE18 6HD. May 28, 11am – 6pm. Admission: £10/ FREE for under 12s. www.woolwich.works/events/keto-low-carb-festival
