Beer festivals have become such a popular activity in the UK that they’re no longer limited to summer months. It’s a notable trend. A recent Telegraph article suggests that, “we have now adopted Oktoberfest with fervour.” In other words, the world’s largest beer festival is not just for Munich anymore – smaller versions are popping up everywhere from London to smaller cities and towns across the UK.  

This autumn and winter, there is no shortage of great beer festivals to choose from (click on the article above for a list of upcoming Oktoberfest events). For breweries and beer-related businesses, these well-attended festivals are a great way to build brand awareness and engage new and existing beer fans. In this post, we help you prepare with a handy checklist of must-have merchandise for any beer festival.

Lanyards

As you know, there are many stands and breweries at beer festivals, especially at some of the larger ones. The Oxford Beer and Cider Festival in November offers over 40 different ales and 50 ciders and the Pigs Ear Beer & Cider Festival in December is stocked with 230 cask ales, beers and ciders. To ensure that people can clearly identify your beer from the rest, start with your staff!

Create custom lanyards with the name and logo of your brewery to help identify your team and spread your message at the festival. At Rocket Badge, you can choose from a range of low-cost, no-frills, credit-card sized lanyards (available nearly next-day!). Or, we also offer cool upgrades like silk screen printed lanyards, flat polyester lanyards with lobster claw fittings and plastic safety buckles and fine embroidered and satin lanyards. We even offer a clever USB Flash Drive lanyard, where you could save things like brewery coupons or recipes that incorporate your beer.

Uniforms

Another way to up your game at beer festivals is with custom uniform for your staff. Clothing is a great way to showcase your brand and make a lasting impression on everyone who visits your stand. Bright customised polo shirts extend a professional appearance and you could even make them a talking point with a funny saying or quote on the back. The quirkier the design the better, especially for promoting across your social channels after the event. You could also include a hashtag, making it even easier for customers to champion your beer on their social media. For outdoor festivals, consider a low-cost, customised jacket, like our lightweight and water repellent Result Core Windcheater.

Another idea is to splurge on early holiday gifts for your hard-working brewery staff and gift them a high-end customised jacket like our North Face Apex Bionic Jacket. The Climatebloc fabric blocks wind and cold temperatures which means your team will proudly sport your message all through the winter, not just at upcoming beer festivals.

Beer Badges

Beer badges are another must-have merchandise item as they’re low-cost yet highly versatile. Provide branded badges to your employees alongside lanyards and uniforms, to help identify them as part of your awesome “beer team”!

You can also sell beer badges at your booth or give them away for free as a thank you to people for visiting your stand. Keep button badges front and center in your stall and watch people pin them on and become a walking advert for your beer.

Or try creating a limited-edition badge that features the name and date of the festival as a one-of-a-kind collectable keepsake that you can update every season. Here’s a great example from BrewDog that features an eye-catching set of beer cap badges.

Beer Insulators

Even though it’s autumn and the temperature’s dropping, everyone will still want to keep their beer cold and crisp, and their hands as warm as possible! In our experience, no beer festival stand is complete without a custom cooler. As with beer badges, you could design a customised, collectable can cooler featuring the name and date of the festival or showcasing a special beer release.

Or go big with an insulated beer bag! We can apply your brewery logo and message to a special six or four-can cooler bag like the example below, which will help your customers keep their beer cool during and after the festival. Consider slipping some coupons or brochures into every bag to encourage people to visit your brewery after the end of the event.

T-Shirts

Last but not least is the ubiquitous must-have wearable: a commemorative beer festival t-shirt! These make great souvenirs and memorable gifts for attendees. Collectively, our team at Rocket Badge has been to quite a few festivals this year; we can help you design a creative, branded shirt that is on-trend and stands apart from the others.

We hope this post helps you pick out some of the hottest merchandise for the coolest beer festivals this autumn and winter. For even more tips, check out our Ultimate Craft Beer Festival Marketing Guide. We hope to see you out and about at some! Which ones are you excited to attend?