Whitby District Lion’s Club is very excited to announce that The Whitby Beer Festival is a back for 2024! The charity beer festival is held in aid of Whitby & District Lion’s Club. This year the festival is celebrating its 13^th year and the club intends to celebrate the growing reputation of the festival of serving over 30 of the very best artisan ales, boutique beers and scrumptious ciders from award-winning local and regional independent brewers and micro-breweries. 

The festival as always is being held at the Whitby Mission & Seafarers Centre, Haggersgate in Whitby which is ideally located in the centre of the town. The festival opens its doors from Thursday 25th July until Sunday 28th July. The opening times are from 12 Noon until 10 PM Thursday to Saturday and 12 Noon until 4 PM on Sunday. Entrance tickets cost just £5 which includes a commemorative festival tankard, which is yours to keep as a souvenir and one beer token (for one ½ pint measures). Beer tickets can then be purchased throughout the festival.

Last year the festival raised an amazing £5,000.00 for Whitby Lion’s with 100% of this been donated to many local Whitby charities that the club supports throughout the year. Whitby Lion’s is part of Lions International which is the biggest voluntary charity network in the world with over 1.7 million members. All the money we raise from the festival and throughout the year from our other events is kept and spent locally. The club provides vital funding which can be difficult to access for small independent charities that we support. We also support many personal good causes, helping people with disability, learning or health needs.  As a club, we also run our Disability Scooter Scheme which hires out mobility scooters (free of charge) to anyone who has difficulty getting out and about. The total raised last year included the one-off purchase of some beer barrel cooling jackets, these ensure our beers are cool enough to serve throughout the festival. Therefore, the actual amount raised would have been higher. This purchase secures the long term future of the festival to be self sufficient and deliver a better customer experience.                 

The festival boasts an excellent range of delicious traditional hand-crafted real ales ranging from pale ales, IPA’s, bitters, blonds, golden, dark milds to porters which have all been brewed in small batches using locally sourced ingredients. All our real ales are served from traditional draught casks, this gives our real ales a fresher authentic taste.  You will not find any mass-produced carbonated beer here. We also have an exceptional range of real ciders to enjoy from traditional scrumpy, dry, sweet or to the ever popular fruity ciders such as mango and strawberry. All our ciders have been made from real apples and fruit by dedicated small producers, that use a natural production method of making deliciously mellow, aromatic or sweet great tasting ciders.

Our festival warmly welcomes anyone who wants to sample our great produce from tourists, day-trippers, evening goers and real ale enthusiasts. Families are very welcome as soft drinks are available for children and all we ask is for children to be supervised by an adult. Every year the festival is friendly and has a relaxed atmosphere, especially when the sun is out, as we have outside seating, which is a great way to bring along some friends, family or just by yourself and enjoy our real ale and ciders.

The Whitby Mission Café which is located just next to the hall where the festival is been held, the café serves homemade food all day which will brilliantly complement your real ale or cider. Bar snacks are also available throughout the festival at the bar.      

On behalf of Whitby & District Lions, we thank you for your past and continued support and we look forward to seeing you there, Cheers!