The 1st Festival, which ran from 16th September – 18th September, in Blackfriars’ Hall was officially opened by the then Bishop of Lynn, the Rt. Rev. Aubrey Aitken, who pulled a pint of Merrie Monk the strongest mild in the country at the time. 35 beers amounting to 10,000 pints were available. Entertainment was in the form of country dancing and folk singing.
The idea will have come from what may be the first ever non-brewery beer festivals in the UK, the Bystanders Society events at their social club in Thorpe Rd, Norwich in the early 70s, and the St Albans and Cambridge beer festivals which had run since 1974.
The festival was held before the first Great British Beer Festival, at Alexandra Palace the following week.
The local paper (Eastern Daily Press) reported that at a CAMRA meeting in the Beehive held in June 1977, it was decided to hold a beer festival later in the year. Joint organiser Mick Betts said that the festival was not about making money but to publicise the work of CAMRA.
The festival was scheduled to have a souvenir glass, unfortunately a strike at the manufacturers meant they were never delivered. The 1980 festival had the first issued glass and at the same time we were asked if we wished to have the first festival glasses cheaply which was agreed upon. A sample case of 24 duly arrived, with about 16 glasses not broken in it. This was rather appalling, a heavy one pint “Tudor” tankard, with a CAMRA logo and the words “The First Norwich Beer Festival, 1977” in white lettering as shown above. Meanwhile the manufacturer broke up for skillet the remaining stock. So the glass that was never issued is a rare beast!
This is a copy of the beer list for the first Festival, reprinted in the 2002 Festival programme.