BeerViking at GBBF

I will be at the Great British Beer Festival next week, in search of stories, writing work and beer, mostly in that order! On Tuesday I'm taking part in the Champion Beer of Britain judging, then after that I plan to do some blogging and news writing from the festival floor.

Of course, thanks to the ongoing economic disaster that is the Olympics, GBBF has been displaced from Earls Court back to its former home at Olympia. I can't say I'm too sorry – Earls Court was bigger, sure, but it's a horribly noisy space with ghastly orange sodium lighting. And given all the news reports that London is all-but deserted, thanks to people fleeing the corporate and political ego-fest that is Stratford 2012, Olympia ought to be big enough...

Actually, that's an important point to make – if you've been thinking about coming to GBBF, but were put off by fears of transport chaos and rip-off pricing, think again. Many of the hotels and other businesses that thought they could whack up their prices for the summer are having to hastily retract, and there's some considerable bargains on offer as they desperately try to pull in customers. And as far as transport's concerned, we ought to be OK as we're on the west side of town, away from avoid-at-all-cost hotspots such as London Bridge.

See you there....