The lack of tent was organisers' 'main issue', Cambridge & District CAMRA has said

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Cambridge Beer Festival has been cancelled this year primarily because organisers couldn't find a tent in which to host it, CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) has admitted. The beloved event, which attracts thousands of attendees every year, was set to be held on Jesus Green between Monday, May 23 and Saturday, May 28.

But organisers announced earlier this year that the festival would be cancelled for the third year running, citing "a combination of the Covid-19 pandemic, Brexit, and other factors" which led to "unresolvable supply chain issues for critical elements of the festival infrastructure". Now the specifics of those supply chain issues have come to light.

"The main issue, I think, is probably the tent," Cambridge & District CAMRA spokesperson Neil McGovern said. "Given the size of the tent we have, I think it's 25 metres by 75 metres, there's just not that many suppliers for it.

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"We did try really hard to find something and we did manage to find something that was more than twice the price of our normal supplier, but unfortunately that disappeared pretty quickly."

Organisers began searching for a tent in September 2021, they say, but to no avail. In October, their usual supplier - Northern Event Structures - confirmed that they wouldn't be able to provide a tent and their competitors were all out too.

"Tents [are] being used as Covid test centres and temporary import warehouses; they're on long-term hire elsewhere," Neil said. "Additionally, it's difficult to get the skilled labour - people who know how to put up tents - because it's a structure rather than just a tent.

"A lot of the people who used to work for these companies have HGV licences and as they haven't had anything to put up for a couple of years, they've gone elsewhere and found other employment. That would be solved by people from partner companies in Europe but that requires work visas now."

But finding a tent wasn't the only organisational snag: the toilet and shower block firm the festival usually employ went bust during the pandemic, although Neil says they "may have been able to work around" that. The festival's cancellation was a disappointment to real ale fans across Cambridge and came after organisers had already put in a "considerable amount of work".

Cambridge & District CAMRA hopes to host the festival on Jesus Green next year and in the meantime have urged beer drinkers to attend local festivals. Although the Cambridge festival is cancelled, plenty of local pubs are hosting their own events while a CAMRA festival will be held in Peterborough in August.

Northern Event Structures has been contacted for comment.