April 26, 2012
I’ve been to both Earls Court and Olympia for this one. The positives of both is that the staff are very friendly, and it’s easy to meet an extremely wide variety of beer fans from far and wide. Staff at the cider booth spent a lot of time explaining the different varieties, since I don’t know a lot about them. The food was not exciting at either, but then again there are quite a few choices outside the venue in the surrounding neighborhoods, especially around Olympia. I hope that seating at Olympia is more plentiful than it was at Earls Court this year. And I hope someone follows in the tradition of nate2g, who did a terrific job taking us on pub crawls at the time of the 2011 festival.

April 22, 2012
A fantastic festival, both for UK cask ales and foreign beers. I really enjoy going to this festival and can recommend it to anyone. Yes, they cater for the masses in some ways, but there is always something, even for the most seasoned of tickers!

January 13, 2012
The place had everything I would want at a beer festival, namely big space and toilets. Given the huge crowds at the fest I think the Earls Court handled the mayhem pretty well. I never saw any incidents and the atmosphere was pretty much always jovial. I guess it got pretty noisy, but as I reflect on my time spent at GBBF in Earls Court I only remember spending time with good people and drinking lots and lots of beer. It will be interesting to see how Olympia fares as the new venue.

January 4, 2012
Noizy and crowdy. Not easy to find a place to sit if you are coming an our or two after opening hours. Great beer selection, but not always a great beer. Now and then you will go for a bottle just to be sure you get a real taste :-) Lot of nice people and some good tutored tastings. You need to be there for a while to get the whole picture. Been at Earls Court three times. Looking forward to visit Olympia

October 20, 2011
Lots of beers. Possible to sit down and relax while drinking. Large and noizy. Atmospheric . . Lots of tics and friendly people.

October 14, 2011
So big that everything is hit and miss. A few constants: You WILL get a lot of ticks (if you want). You WILL get a beer in terrible condition. You WILL eat pork scratchings. You WILL hate all those noisy people. You WILL love the plentyful seating. You WILL visit the foreign beer bar when you get tired of diacetyl bombs.

August 13, 2011
Well, Olympia will be different, so this review isn’t relevant any more. Noisy and sweaty. But you can’t fauly the selection. You can fault boring brewers for brewing yet another boring bitter, though. Nosh is pucker. Beers are cheap, but entry isn’t.

August 10, 2011
An annual event in the first week of August. This year (2011) was the last at Earls Court as from next year it will return to it’s old venue of Olympia. Well worth a visit if you are in London during the first week of August.