We Are Beer looks to crowdfund £300k for untied festival

15-Apr-2019 - Last updated on 15-Apr-2019 at 08:56 GMT

Crafty: We Are Beer seeks to launch new style of festival

The founders of the London, Bristol and Edinburgh Craft Beer Festivals We Are Beer is aiming to raise £300,000 in a bid to bring its beer and food-centric credentials to the UK’s music scene.

According to the organisers, the new Bigfoot festival will disrupt the category by being the first to offer revellers “real choice” by moving away from tied agreements with big beer.

Festival investors will bag themselves VIP tickets to the weekend-long event, merchandise and a membership programme.

The campaign has already topped £110,000 in its private round and is now open for public donations.

Bigfoot food and beer festival

Bigfoot will be held at Ragley Hall in Warwickshire in 2020 and is setting out to bring together the best live music, top chefs and “cutting-edge” breweries under one roof.

Co-founder Greg Wells says: “Outdoor festivals have always been dominated by bland beer brand tie-ins and average food, and we hope to change that.

“We want to create a utopia where great music, food and beer is everywhere you turn.”

“We’ve got the perfect escapist location and some exciting acts in the pipeline, but the upfront cost for an event of this scale is huge,” he continued.

Community spirit

“With the community spirit we want to create, crowdfunding is the most natural way to secure it.”

Wells added: “It’s great to be opening in a new city, and we’ve had ambitions for Birmingham for a while now. If we go into overfunding, we have our eyes on some more UK cities as well as abroad – while making our current ones the best in the world.”

We Are Beer has also announced its fourth craft beer festival – Beer Central – which will be held in Birmingham.

The new festival will bring together breweries from across the Midlands, with any overfunding used to widen its reach to other parts of the UK.