11/07/2026
There were some comments made about Chorlton Beer Festival and the entrance price on the M21 facebook group last weekend. I tried to respond there via a comment, but I’m still waiting for the admins to approve the post. In the meantime I thought I would put my response here instead.
"Hi there,
Not wishing to argue with anyone but there are a few misconceptions that I could perhaps correct:
1. While it is £11 to pay on the gate on the Saturday, if you bought an early bird advanced ticket for the Thursday evening it would have cost you £14 which included a £10 drinks voucher – an effective entrance price of £4. We always do our best to advertise the advance tickets sales online. Look out at the start of May next year if you want to grab an early bird ticket.
2. And you can always attend for free if you volunteer. Our volunteers come from members of St Clement’s congregation, members of CAMRA (The Campaign for Real Ale), and people from the wider community of Chorlton and South Manchester who want to support what we do. Within our fantastic team you will find a range of ages, physical abilities, learning challenges, and neurodivergence. For a couple of hours volunteering during setup week, pack down, or within the festival, you’ll get the festival T-Shirt and a first drink. (I would add volunteering is absolutely not a lesser option. People choose to volunteer over attending as customers for the camaraderie, the atmosphere, and the FUN!!!!)
3. It is a fundraiser. No individual is making any money. The festival is a joint project between St Clements Church and the Trafford and Hulme branch of CAMRA. The profits are split between CAMRA and St Clements in way which massively favours St Clements (for which we are always grateful to our friends from CAMRA). All the organizers and all the staff are volunteers, whom I cannot thank or praise enough.
4. As well as being a regular parish church, we also use the buildings at St Clements and St Barnabas as a local community centre. We run four halls, in three buildings, across two sites. We host over 35 different groups every week plus more on a monthly or irregular basis. We provide office and storage space for Chorlton and Didsbury Foodbank and Face 2 Face counselling. We organize, or provide space, for activities for people ranging from 1 week old to 101 years young. But running a listed 19th century building as a 21st century community resource is costly. The Beer Festival profits go towards maintaining and developing our buildings and keeping them open for the community.
Happy to answer any questions (but will note that as we are now in the pack down phase of the operation, I probably won’t sit down and check messages for at least couple of days until that is finished).
Ken Flood
Rector of St Clement’s, Chorlton.
