So long, and thanks for all the beer?

Is this the end of the Great British Beer Festival?

When I visited GBBF 2025 last month, I had a few concerns about its future. My beloved special place, dislocated and poorly attended. Something not quite right. 

Talking to staff there, it was felt to be 'quiet', but there was no sense of absolute disaster. We all had a pretty good time, even if it didn't feel the same.

Then came the murmerings of disquiet and doom-mongery. 

It wasn't encouraging when some of US casks went untapped and had to be sent to other events and pubs in the area. That's right - beer from the USA bar which always sells out early hadn't found enough customers at the NEC. Suboptimal.

No queues, plenty of seating available - maybe a good thing for a customer, but not a good sign for CAMRA really. 

Then the news emerged that they had made a loss. A big loss. £320k apparently. That's not just 'disappointing', it's an excuse to legitimately wheel out terms like 'existential' and 'catastrophic'.

It's really not good news. 

Great pubs are killing good pubs. Discuss.

I love the Hope in Carshalton.

It just won my London Pub of the Year award for the fourth time, and a few days later CAMRA turned out to be in full agreement with me, naming the Hope as the best pub in Greater London. Big achievement and entirely deserved, I think.

But this isn't about how absolutely fucking awesome this pub is. I'm going to say something controversial, and I'm not I completely believe it to be true, but it's worth floating the idea for debate at least:

Great pubs are killing good pubs. Maybe. 

I'd better explain exactly what I mean by this...