Save the date! Women in Beer® announces plans for their first-ever joint Women in Beer® Awards & Festival

Women in Beer®, the ‘Women Who Beer’ community, has announced the dates for its fourth festival, with five days of events celebrating women in the brewing industry taking place from Tuesday, 20th to Saturday, 24th October 2026.

In 2026, Women in Beer® is choosing Manchester as the host city to make the event even more accessible to both beer lovers and industry professionals.

About this year’s event, Women in Beer® Founder Amélie Tassin said: “I am very excited to bring the Women in Beer® Festival & Awards to Manchester. With such a fantastic brewing and pub culture, the city seemed the perfect choice for our first festival outside of Scotland. As we take our events across the UK, we aim to make them accessible to as many people as possible. It is important to make sure we’re allowing people to join and learn from the fantastic women who shape our industry, wherever they are in the country.”

After a successful inaugural awards ceremony in October 2025, the Women in Beer® Festival will launch their week-long celebration with the Women in Beer® Awards on Tuesday, 20th October. This will be followed on Wednesday, 21st October, by the always-popular seminars, featuring a roster of panel discussions and talks hosted this year at Cloudwater Brew Co.’s taproom.

People will also be able to participate in the festival across the Manchester area, as Women in Beer® is partnering with the ‘Manchester Crafty Beer Girls’ group to showcase beers that are from breweries owned by or brewed by women, with a series of events and tap takeovers in pubs and taprooms across the city. This starts with the seminar afterparty hosted at Port Street Beer House, which will showcase collaboration beers brewed by Women in Beer® in the run-up to the event.

Manchester Crafty Beer Girls founder, Chess Slattery, who previously worked in the brewing industry herself, is delighted to see the Women in Beer® Festival come to the city: “It’s mega exciting to welcome the WiB Festival to Manchester with its incredibly vibrant and diverse brewing and beer community. In challenging times for the industry, it continues to fizz with energy and a collaborative spirit that we hope enables Women in Beer® to showcase to the full its own incredible work supporting and celebrating women in beer. Mark your calendars, folks - it’s going to be an ace one!”

The festival will come to a close on Saturday, 24th October, with the ‘Big Meet Up’ organised by the Manchester Crafty Beer Girls. Open to everyone, the event will bring people together to celebrate women in the beer industry and to raise funds for charity and the Women in Beer® Mentorship Programme.

The fourth Women in Beer® Festival will take place from Tuesday, 20th October to Saturday, 24th October 2026. Tickets for the awards and seminar will be on sale from the 1st of September via the Women in Beer® website www.womeninbeer.co.uk.

Companies that would like to support the small and independent team at Women in Beer® by becoming a sponsor are encouraged to get in touch with the organisers at hello@womeninbeer.co.uk.

Note to Editors:

About Women in Beer®:

Women in Beer® is a community. We are a group for women who like good beer and good company. We meet up in local pubs, attend events and festivals, visit breweries, and learn from other women in the brewing industry. We’re here to support women in their beer journey, whether it’s their passion, their career, or they are just looking for a new hobby.

Our activities are:

• The Group

• The Festival (WiB Fest)

• The Mentorship Programme

• The Awards

Website and social media

www.womeninbeer.co.uk

Instagram: @womeninbeeruk

Facebook: /womeninbeer

Bluesky: @womeninbeer.bsky.social

About Manchester Crafty Beer Girls

Manchester Crafty Beer Girls (MCR CBG’s) is a free social group for beer-loving and beer-curious women. They meet monthly in the city’s best independent pubs, bars and taprooms, growing from 8 attendees at the first meet-up in 2022 to a community of 80+, and always offer a warm welcome to new and solo faces. They also brew a beer yearly as part of the International Women’s Collaboration Brew Day celebrations, raising money for women’s charities, and pairing up with local breweries such as Runaway, Bundobust and Brid’s Cross.

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