26th - 28th April
Abingdon on Thames is a very historic town, the longest continually inhabited town in England and the county town of Berkshire until 1867 with a magnificent County Hall and 300 architecturally listed buildings at its centre.
The town is known for it’s brewing and malting which created wealth for the town over the next centuries. Brewing and malting has taken place at Abingdon Abbey for over 1,000 years. Initiated by the monks for their own consumption, up to a gallon (8 pints) a day – the amount we hope will be drunk by visitors to the Beer Festival! Shortly after the Dissolution the remaining buildings were developed as the Abbey Brewery, a major malthouse and brewery in the town.
Beer continued to be brewed on the site of the Abingdon Beer Festival for some 300 years until it was merged with Moorlands in the 1860s.
The Abingdon Beer Festival is a tradition revived; organised with the support of the Loose Cannon Brewery, itself a revival of an Abingdon brewing tradition. The Festival is held in the remaining Abbey Buildings which are now a nationally scheduled monument and grade 1 listed. In 1944 they were saved from demolition by the charity The Friends of Abingdon, who have continued to own and maintain them for over 75 years. Although the Buildings are wonderfully atmospheric and contain the only theatre in the town, the Unicorn, there is much to do to make them more accessible and functional.