Bahrain's one and only Beer Festival -GBBF1

August 01, 2020 Bahrain, BMMI, GBBF1, Neil 1 and 2, Tony the Dogfather,

Neil 1 , whose arm made a speedy recovery to lift a few beers!

Back in 2010 it was my 50th Birthday and I had been in Bahrain 7 months. My brother , Richard , visited for a week. At the time I was running the swimming pool bar. So we decided to arrange a Real Ale Beer festival ( I was a real ale aficionado back then!). It was the first time anything like that had been done in Bahrain and so we named it after the Great British Beer Festival , except our was the Great Bahrain Beer Festival , or GBBF1 for short.

I persuade our beautiful dietician Elba to sell raffle tickets for me

I asked Local artist, Seana Mallen to create a logo and then we had tee shirts and beer glasses made with the logo on. I got all the local alcohol suppliers to donate booze ( African and Eastern, Gulf Brands, BMMI and NHC) and John Jaworski made some excellent posters.

The Sailing club bar

In spite of a poorly wrist Neil Gilbert set up the bars in the Car Club and the SailingCclub. Dave Williams took care of the football club and John Steer the Tennis club.

John Steer at the Tennis club, where the night began

Mike Roche did the photography, Andy Mac Alpine led the way to the sailing club ( in full wet weather sailing gear). Richard and Seana did the course on a tandem and the boys from BMMI came with leaflets and roll up banners for their delivery service.

Special thanks to the guys from BMMI for their most generous donations

The event was a fundraiser for a charity I supported back then , Tony the Dog-father, and Tony himself ( RIP) turned up on the night.

Tony Walters, aka the Dog father- we miss you

The graphic designer from the Daily Tribune designed the programmes for free and Kung Fu gave us a special offer on the curry which they served at the Football club at the end of the trail. There was supposed to be a band at the AFC but they were too drunk to play!