Rotherham Real Ale and Music Festival

The tradition & historical record

The Rotherham Real Ale and Music Festival (formerly the Oakwood Real Ale and Music Festival) is an annual real ale festival that takes place in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. The event takes place annually at the Magna Centre, Rotherham a former Steel works, it is the largest indoor beer festival taking place outside London and unlike many other festivals serves all cask ales using traditional gravity-based hand pumps. Proceeds from the festival are used to support the work of local charities and good causes. Since the festival relocated to Magna in 2011 it has raised in excess of £150,000 for local good causes. Charities which have benefitted from the festival have included: The Rotherham Hospice, Weston Park Cancer Hospital, Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice and Safe@Last as well as a number of smaller Rotherham-based good causes. Unlike many other beer festivals, the Rotherham Real Ale and Music Festival is not organised by CAMRA, although the festival does enjoy close links with the Rotherham branch of the organisation. Inside the festival, the Rotherham Real Ale and Music Festival regularly features a selection of over 250 different varieties of Real Ale as well as 80 different types of Cider, Wine, Perry (Pear Cider) and Lager. In 2011, the first festival hosted at the Magna Centre, was attended by 10,000 visitors, raised £35,000 for local good causes. ¹

The Oakwood Real Ale and Music Festival began in 1992, initially as a one-off fundraiser to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the opening of Oakwood High School. Such was the success of the festival, that the event was repeated every year, helping to raise money for the school. The early days of the festival saw just 20 different real ales feature at the event, with many teachers and parents working behind the bars to help make the event a success. The last event to take place at Oakwood School took place in 2010 featured 220 different real ales, ciders, perries, lagers and wines. The festival is well known for its quirky themes, which has been used to introduce different types of Real Ales into the festival. Year-on-year the selection of Real Ales has grown from the original 20, to over 250 in 2013. ¹

In 2011, largely due to growing visitor numbers and popularity of the event, the festival relocated from Oakwood School to the Magna Centre, as well as providing space for the event to continue to grow in size. Between 1992 and 2010 all proceeds for the event were donated to supporting the work of the school. Since 2010, proceeds from the event are used to support charitable causes. Following the move to Magna, the festival has continued this charitable ethos, supporting a selection of charities within Rotherham and South Yorkshire, with attendances growing from 10,000 to over 12,000 between 2011 and 2014. ¹

Baa'sil the Sheep, who is featured in the festival logo is the official festival mascot. He first appeared at the festival in 2004, which chose Real Ales from "Sheep Counties" around the UK. Baa'sil provides tasting notes about the different types of Real Ales that feature in the festival and has appeared every subsequent festival. In addition to providing tasting notes, jokes and trivia attributed to Baa'sil appear in around the festival. ¹

Real Ales from Yorkshire that feature in the festival are eligible to enter the festival's Champion Beer competition, which is open to beers brewed for at least six months of the year by breweries based in Yorkshire. Organised by the Rotherham Branch of CAMRA The prize is highly sought after by brewers in the region. The contest is carried out entirely through blind tasting of eligible beers. ¹

Each year, the festival selects a theme which ensures that visitors to the event are able to enjoy a selection of Real Ales from around the UK. Previous themes for the festival are: ¹

2023 - Baa t'at (Yorkshire themed festival) 2022 - Festival for heroes 2020 - Lambusters 2019 - Baas, Bands and Beers 2017 - Mines a Pint! 2015 - Baa-Watch 2014 - Ale to the Festival 2013 - Baa'sil Goes West 2012 - Baa's of Steel 2011 - The White Rose Festival 2010 - Great Northern Festival 2009 - A Day at the Races 2008 - The Legendary Festival 2007 - The Yorkshire Championship 2006 - The Festival of Heroes 2005 - Back to the Baa 2004 - The Great Baa 2003 - London to Yorkshire 2002 - The Yorkshire Championship 2001 - Barr of Soaps 2000 - Yorkshire Greater Ales 1999 - The Magnificent Seventh 1998 - Sporty Sixth 1997 - Fabulous Fifth 1996 - Fantastic Fourth 1995 - Third Smashing Year! (First year the festival is referred to as the Rotherham Real Ale and Music Festival) 1994 - The 2nd Real Ale Festival 1993 - Unthemed 1992 - 40th Anniversary of Oakwood School ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Rotherham Real Ale and Music Festival”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Rotherham Real Ale and Music Festival is festival in the UK, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation. ²