CAMRA, England's influential real ale advocacy group, has taken the difficult decision to cancel its flagship events for 2026, including the Great British Beer Festival (GBBF) and its equivalent winter event. The move is part of a broader effort to address severe budget shortfalls and financial instability.

According to an email to members from Chair Ash Corbett-Collins, recent festivals, particularly this year’s GBBF held at the NEC Birmingham, failed to attract enough visitors to offset ballooning costs, including venue hire, volunteer accommodation and other operational overheads.

Rising inflation and shrinking profit margins were cited as key pressures.

Membership numbers, long a backbone of CAMRA’s influence and funding, are stagnating and are likely not to recover to pre-2020 levels in the near future, creating a financial gap that the organisation can no longer ignore.

In response, CAMRA has launched a cost-cutting strategy to safeguard its core mission. The plan includes reviewing all internal budgets, concentrating on essential activities rather than “nice-to-have” events and exploring efficiency measures across its operations.

Chair, Corbett-Collins emphasised that while the decision was “incredibly difficult,” it was deemed necessary to preserve the organisation’s future. He also called on government and industry stakeholders to support pubs and beer culture through measures such as VAT cuts, relaxing business rates and addressing increased running costs for community-based events.

Despite the cancellations, CAMRA intends to continue campaigning for real ale, pubs and community connections. Other regional festivals will still be assessed carefully, and efforts will be made to ensure CAMRA emerges leaner but still focused on its heritage and mission.