Ready to serve: Whitby Beer Festival 2026 to get underway at Seafarer's Mission

The charity beer festival, held in aid of Whitby & District Lion’s Club, is in its 15th year and the club intends to celebrate the growing reputation of the festival by serving over 30 of the very best artisan ales, boutique beers and scrumptious ciders from award-winning local and regional independent brewers and micro-breweries.

The festival is being held at its traditional venue at the Whitby Mission & Seafarers Centre, Haggersgate in Whitby which is ideally located in the centre of the town.

The festival opens its doors at 12pm on Thursday July 23 and runs from 12pm-10pm each day until it closes at 4pm on Sunday J uly 26.

Entrance tickets cost just £5 which includes a commemorative festival tankard to keep as a souvenir.

Beer tickets can then be purchased throughout the festival.

Last year the festival raised an amazing £5,000 for Whitby Lion’s with 100% of this money being donated to many local Whitby charities that the club supports throughout the year.

The club provides vital funding which can be difficult to access for small independent charities. It also supports many personal good causes, helping people with disability, learning or health needs.

The total raised last year included the one-off purchase of several beer barrel cooling jackets, to ensure the beers are cool enough to serve throughout the festival.

The festival boasts an excellent range of delicious traditional hand-crafted real ales ranging from pale ales, IPA’s, bitters, blonds, golden and dark milds to porters which have all been brewed in small batches using locally sourced ingredients.

All real ales are served from traditional draught casks, to give a fresher authentic taste.

There is also an exceptional range of real ciders to enjoy from traditional scrumpy, dry or sweet to the ever popular fruity ciders such as mango and strawberry.

The festival warmly welcomes anyone who wants to sample the great produce from tourists and day-trippers to evening-goers and real ale enthusiasts.

Families are very welcome as soft drinks are available for supervised children.

Spokesperson for Whitby Lions, Krysta Roe said: “We can’t wait to welcome everyone to the festival this year, we have a fantastic range of beers for people to choose from, and every single one has been tested by our dedicated team!

“We would like to thank everyone who has sponsored a barrel and must give a special shout-out to The Witching Post at Egton and Whitby Golf Club who both donated a full barrel.

“Special thanks too to Ossett Brewery who also donated a barrel.

“We would also like to thank PAS Scaffolding for building the staging which holds the very important barrels, and The Seafarers Mission for once again hosting the event.

“We look forward to welcoming friends old and new to what we hope will be a very enjoyable festival weekend.”