Pint of Carling, please: Back in Reading at the Beer Festival

Kings Meadow, Napier Road, Reading, RG1 8BN

This is actually a post I wrote something as a month ago... but as I have no Internet connection at home, I couldn't post it. Here it goes...

Well well well... it looks like it has rained quite a lot since this post, when I was complaining about how expensive the flight fares might be to get a go on Reading's Beer Festival. Luckily, a train ticket from Paddington is not that expensive ('just' 14.10 fucking quid per a 30 minutes-long single one), so there were no chances at all I wouldn't enjoy it. And I actually did.

This year it were 450 beers of varying strengths and styles from all over England, Wales and Scotland. The Festival works on the following way: you get inside for 7 pounds, including an engraved glass where you have your drinks from (unfortunately I have lost the 10th festival one, I hope not losing this 14th as well) and a brochure with a brief description of every beer, arranged by breweries. And inside, there are three huge tents with all the breweries, sorted by name and region, with a load of piled beer barrels waiting for you to taste its content.

I was up there on the 2nd and 3rd of May, Friday and Saturday. On Friday I went with Carlos, Adam, Ana and Reinard, and Luke joined us on Saturday as well. I had the chance to meet back Tom and Brendan, which was really very cool, as I haven't met them, at least Tom, since almost three years ago. I wasn't as brave as Reinard, who tried every single stout in the Festival every day... but I had quite a lot. As I think I wrote in the other post, is the Spanish fashion to ask the barman about some different beers, try all of them and decide fo one, but just at the end... that means you try three or four for the price of one... not a bad deal at all!!

Problems up there? Well, queuing something as 3 hours it´s not a funny thing... so, if you wanna avoid that, just do as we did: arrive there early (earlier than 2 pm). And Saturday evening queues for going to the loo are quite long as well... and you have no chance to get the spaniard way there (ie. piss wherever u want). So take it easy, and buy a pint before going to the toilet :D.

There were also some local folk bands, playing after 9 pm... not too good stuff, I have to say. Anyone who enjoys good music (say jazz, for instance) will have a great chance to enjoy the beer&music thing on Greenwich, on the beer and jazz festival. It will last for five day, 16th -20th July, and I'll be there for sure... so, if you are planning to drop around, just have that event in mind, because it might be great fun!!!

And after the beer festival... yeah, you got it: AfterDark. And you know what does it mean... don't you?