Great British Beer Festival (GBBF) is an annual beer festival in the UK organized by the Campaign for Real Ale. See campaign for real ale (camra). Styled as “the biggest pub in the world,” the first GBBF was held in 1977 at Alexandra Palace in London; the festival has been held every year since, with the exception of 1984 (when there was a fire in the hall in which the festival was to be held). Over the years the festival’s venue has been in Leeds, Birmingham, and Brighton, but London has been its permanent home since 1991, when it was held in Docklands Arena. It moved to its current home in 2006 at Earls Court after it had outgrown Olympia, where is had been since 1992.

Today the festival hosts more than 600 beers from around the world, though its prime focus is cask-conditioned “real ale,” of which more than 450 are from UK brewers. However, it has also become a showcase for craft beers from many countries including Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, and the United States. Traditional British cider and perry is also available.

The festival is usually held during the first full week in August and runs from Tuesday to Saturday, with more than 60,000 people attending. It is staffed by more than 1,000 CAMRA volunteers. The festival is also home to the prestigious and influential Champion Beer of Britain awards.

The GBBF is complemented by CAMRA’s Winter Ales Festival, held in January, which focuses on porter and stouts.

The GBBF was not CAMRA’s first large beer festival; that honor goes to the Covent Garden Beer Festival, held in London in September 1975.