Pilsner Fest

Held annually in the Czech city of Plzeň, Pilsner Fest celebrates the pale lager style that was first brewed here in 1842 and went on to become, quite literally, the most widely imitated beer style in the world — nearly every 'pilsner' or 'pils' produced globally today traces its lineage directly back to this one Bohemian city. The festival gives visitors the chance to taste the genuine article at its source, alongside a wider showcase of Czech microbreweries and their own interpretations of the style.

Plzeň's brewing heritage runs deep enough that a visit to the nearly 182-year-old Pilsner Urquell brewery itself has become something of a pilgrimage for beer lovers, complete with tours through the five miles of medieval tunnels once used to store the beer, where visitors can still sample unfiltered, unpasteurised Pilsner poured straight from an oak barrel. The festival extends that spirit of direct, historically grounded tasting into a wider public celebration each year.

For anyone with a genuine interest in beer history rather than just beer tasting, Plzeň's festival offers something increasingly rare: the chance to celebrate a style at the exact place it was invented, nearly two centuries after the fact.