The figures for the 13th Old Town Beer & Cider Festival were reported by Swindon24 on Wednesday 17 June 2026. The festival was held over four days in May at Christ Church in Old Town, Swindon, as a "Centurion Edition" with 100 beers and ciders.
The 2026 festival in numbers
- 1,507 visitors, with about 900 on the Saturday, the busiest day
- A surplus of £25,388.80
- £156,974.61 raised in total since the festival began in 2013
- Almost £10,000 in sponsorship, nearly double 2025, from 52 businesses, 25 of them sponsoring for the first time
- About £1,200 from the raffle
- Around 60 volunteers
- An average rating of 4.77 out of 5 from people who attended
More than 200 people came to the opening-night comedy with Samantha Day, Huw Davies and headliner Esther Manito.
What was new?
The festival worked with Swindon Festival of Literature on a "Brews and Beats" session about beer and music, added family music bingo, held a networking evening for sponsors and widened its range of alcohol-free and gluten-free drinks.
Ticket sales started slowly. Organisers said social media platforms limited the reach of unpaid posts about alcohol, and more than half of online tickets sold in the last three weeks, once paid advertising began.
Organiser Chris Smith said: "I don’t think any of us imagined it would go on to raise more than £156,000".
When is the next one?
The 14th festival is due back at Christ Church from Thursday 6 May to Sunday 9 May 2027.
Source: Swindon24.