Reading Roars!

The Reading Beer & Cider Festival is a momentous, tremendously important event in Reading’s proud cultural calendar. With the departure of WOMAD this year, the 2007 festival (only the 13th) felt even more important.

In 2006 there were apparently 13,100 guzzling visitors. This year, no idea, but surely a greater number as the queue we joined to get in on Friday night was staggeringly long. I looked at the Lenin tomb-like line of visitors and whimpered. It was going to be a two-hour wait, I thought. A two-hour boring wait. A two-hour boring wait in the cold. No cutesy characters or overhead screens (like you get at Disney parks) here. The lady behind me in the queue said that she’d seen nothing like it. “It wasn’t this bad last year,” she said. Cheers.

Amazingly, it wasn’t so bad. The queue moved a bit. Then a bit more. It was more like Sainsbury’s than a crowded airport terminal (US Immigration springs to mind). And then we were in, paying just £7 each (including glass hire).

I was aching for a beer, but there was so much choice (there were 430+ ales). We didn’t have a programme, so there was no guidance. We found a bit of space and asked the volunteer serving behind the table for a bit of assistance. After we tried sample after free sample (we could have sampled our way all evening), we both chose pints of light stuff (name forgotten), which were really tasty.

Sitting down, I felt as if I were in a giant pub. The place was busy, but there was no leery shouting. It was all rather civilised and good-natured. After my pint, I was getting that warm and friendly feeling, the queue now a thing of the past. Surely it was time for another?

It certainly was. Time for something a little different. We headed straight to the foreign beers section, now armed with a programme plucked from someone’s table. Again, so much choice! We agreed to try a strong fruit beer from the Low Countries: Het Anker Boscoulis (6.5%), described as a “fruit beer, based on wild fruits”). After much waiting, we were presented with a glass of Anker (there were actually 3 different types of Anker available, such was the choice). It was dark, rich and syrupy, tasting a little like honey. Really sensuous. Quite exciting.

It was time for a snack. There was hot Mexican food and pittas in the outside area, but I wanted pub snacks to go with the pub drinks and pub atmosphere. There wasn’t much that I could see: parsnip crisps and Mini Cheddars, but no Walker’s Sensations or pork scratchings. Anyway, if you’re hungry, you’re hungry.

A cider followed. Which cider, I can’t remember (there were more than 130 ciders and perries). It had a bit of a sharp taste. It was consumed very quickly.

I was really enjoying myself now. There was a band playing, so we went to enjoy the music. We checked out the T-shirts, badges and other items. Time was running out, however, so we went to the mini tent next door for another beer. At this point, I noticed how a few girls were sporting a balloon hat in the shape of a man’s (very long) appendage. Curious.

The evening drew to a close. We had a super time (though, how can I put this, our souvenir glasses later lost their structure) and I’m very much looking forward to next year’s event. Minus the hangover.