The 2nd weekend in October is still a fixture in the beer festival diary, despite the retirement of IW Campaign for Real Ales’ fabulous Beer and Buses Festival, which at its height attracted 17,000 participants visiting some 100 venues by bus.
Boojum&Snark, a regeneration project on Sandown High Street comprising an onsite brewery, taproom and gallery, opened its doors at the event in 2019 and has had successful beer festivals over the same weekend in 2020 and 2021.
This year they are teaming up with Island Distillery, Goddards and Wight Knuckle breweries. Southern Vectis Route 8 bus goes past all 3 venues. A bus day rover is £10 and a group of up to 5 can get the rover ticket for £26.
Expect great Isle of Wight and guest beers on cask and keg, plus craft cider and of course award-winning Mermaid Gin at the distillery. Goddards will have a pop-up bar at the distillery and they will be moving into their brand new brewery at Branstone in the next few months.
On to Bembridge where Wight Knuckle is on tap at The Pilot Boat Inn. This microbrewery opened in 2021 and its range of beers goes down brilliantly with their homemade pizza.
Heading to Sandown High Street, Boojum&Snark will be showcasing their tried and tested brews alongside experimentals such as Merry Berry Kölsch-style ale and Fritter My Wig IPA collaboration with Hand Brew Co from Worthing. IW cheese boards will be available and entertainment on Saturday evening from vocalist Daisy (chilled vibes) and Sunday evening from She Shells (Shanty Singers).
Bob Simpson managing director of Goddards Brewery said:
“IW CAMRA and IW Bus and Coach Museum volunteers did a magnificent job of creating the unique Beer and Buses weekend, celebrating our beer producers and great venues, whilst travelling around our beautiful island in vintage vehicles – we are happy to work alongside Wight Knuckle and Boojum&Snark to do our bit to carry on the legacy of the original event”
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Julie Jones-Evans of Boojum&Snark added:
“We know that thousands of visitors still book to come over for the same weekend each year, so putting on an event is well received and we can celebrate our birthday too. We have worked closely with Goddards for a while now and together we have produced a new Island craft beer range, Brewed in the Bay, featuring South Island Pale Ale, Barista Coffee Stout and Riptide Red Ale which are available across the Island on draft and bottle”
Brewery and Bus Ride runs from Friday 7th October till Sunday 9th October.
A wash out compared to beer and buses.
Silly stopping something so popular.
Did you not stop to think that there might be valid reasons for cancelling this event ?
Very weak reasons were given – see the Beer and Buses website. Apparently, the organisation of the event was “unsustainable in the long term”. This translates as ‘we don’t want to spend a lot of time on this event any more’.