Enjoyment of beer is influenced by such things the weather and your companions as much as the venue and the quality of the brew itself.   So I acknowledge that this is entirely subjective:

Stockportⁱ - Now hosted at Edgley Park where Stockport FC play football and the Sale Sharks play rugby and held on the 1st weekend in June.   Its open air, but under cover.   The sun usually shines and everyone gets a seat.   Given that the highest concentration of drinking pals live in Manchesterⁱ, means that this was always going to be ahead in my favourite beer festival category.   Plus the fact that the Manchester area has many microbreweries to showcase their beers here and the festival is big enough to get beers from either end of the country too.   Always a good selection of cider & perry too.   The old venue at the town hall was sweltering hot and cramped with no seating, but they did have the Mighty Wurlitzer!

Gosportⁱ - Held at the Thorngate Halls in late February.   No public transport and the bitter cold hold this fest back, but its still my no.2.   The venue is split in two; a larger area with a stage, some steps to sit on and some seats plus another room with basic sandwiches, bottled foreign beers and the brewania for sale.   They now do hot food in a separate room with traditional grub or bacon sarnies.   Again, a high proportion of drinkers I know live within the catchment area for this fest.

Bradfordⁱ - Not in Bradford, but Saltaire on the last weekend of February.   Its still flamin' parky but somehow that's more acceptable up north.   The more hardened beer drinkers amongst my friends descend on the festival from all over the country to drink proper bitter and eat pork scratchings.   A pub crawl of Bradford follows.   Then a pub crawl of Leeds.   Curry is eaten and a whole weekend is lost.   It gets packed and we only go on a Friday afternoon, so it must be what the tube will be like in 2012 on a Friday night.