Bitter taste Management blamed for beer fest axe

CAMRA said City Hall had been 'the perfect venue' for its festival

- Tristan CORK [e-mail]

BRISTOL'S annual real ale and cider festival has had to be cancelled this year and the city’s prestigious Choral Society is facing uncertainty over their future - because the city council has continued to hand over the management of its venue spaces to a corporate events company.

The Post can reveal that the Bristol CAMRA beer and cider festival - which has taken place at City Hall for years - is not going ahead, after a series of issues between volunteer organisers and a company brought in to manage the hiring out of community spaces. And the nationally-renowned Bristol Choral Society has been told the cost of its weekly rehearsal space at City Hall is to go up by around more than eight times, and they would have to pay more than £3,000 every week just to rehearse.

The controversies are the latest to hit the city council and its decision to contract out the management of some of its venue spaces - including City Hall, the M-Shed and the Create Centre - to a corporate events company called Restaurants Associates. The firm specialises in managing venues for corporate conferences, weddings and other upmarket events, often with catering included.