Popular borough beer festival is cancelled for second year

The Bent and Bongs Beer Bash is a firm favourite with beer lovers from across the North West and usually sees hundreds of drinkers flock to the borough to enjoy a tipple.

Its last event in February 2020 was a record-breaker, with 10,080 pints of real ale served and a whopping £15,000 raised for the borough’s branch of the Parkinson’s Disease Society.

But just a few weeks later the coronavirus pandemic swept across the world and was still having an impact a year later, leading to the cancellation of the 2021 festival.

It was hoped the beer bash could return this February, but it was delayed until May due to the discovery of the omicron variant and a surge in coronavirus cases.

But now organisers have announced it has not been possible to put everything in place and the event will not go ahead in 2022.

It comes just weeks after a plea was made for volunteers to come forward to help run the festival.

An email sent to supporters today said:

“It is with very heavy hearts that we bring you the news that we have been forced to cancel the 2022 Bent and Bongs Beer Bash.

"This has been one of the toughest decisions we have ever had to make in the history of the beer bash. We are completely gutted about this and we can't even begin to think how disappointing this must be for you. Doubly so because we haven't run an event now since 2020.

"We know that the first question you are likely to ask is: Why?

“There is no one single reason. Trying to run a beer festival of this size at the different time of the year threw up a number of new issues and problems. Some of these are within our control, some turned out to be beyond our control. Try as we have, we have not been able to resolve these problems."

It is now hoped the 32nd Bent and Bongs Beer Bash will be held from February 2 to 4, 2023.