Beards, they grow on you...

 

 

Being a Beard Lady has been an unexpected but interesting chapter of my life...

As World Beard Day rolls around again (first Saturday in September, folks) I find myself reminiscing about my dabbling in the world of competitive bearding!

I was talking to a friend about how it happened that I introduced the beard contest to Liverpool...

I started a beard blog after snapping the world's best beards in Brighton in 2007 and once you notice awesome beards, it's hard to stop! 'Everyone needs a hobby..' is how I once described it, I think essentially my love of anything creative, sense of fun, along with  natural born organiser skills (I do a good to-do list) was all I needed to get the BEERDFEST thing going...

Plus an untapped flair for PR, next thing you know I'm on the front page of the Liverpool Echo with a fake moustache!

 

 

 

When I moved out of the area it became clear I needed to rest the event and move the community and beard love online to social platforms, we have a good crowd on Facebook and Twitter, find Insta a little hard to keep up with, but there is still a lot of love out there for my little beard party which I'm proud to have created & will defo be back with an event in the future, either in Liverpool or 'On Tour'... Watch this space!

 

And remember, with a great beard comes great responsibility! ;)

 

Have a great #worldbeardday

 

Save The Date

Another World Beard Day approaches and that means one thing for the good people of Liverpool... 

****UPDATE****
Had a last minute venue let down so not sure we can go ahead this year, more details on the Facebook event page
*****

BEERDFEST! 

This year we are upping the FUN and joining forces with a very special party partner ^_^ Stay tuned and save the date brothers & sisters, you will not be disappointed! There will be dancing, there will be beard stroking, there will be a celebration! 

BEERDFEST LIVERPOOL

Beerdfest 2016

What happened at Beerdfest 2016?

Thank you very much for another bonkers fun day ^_^ 

We raised £227 for Freshfields Animal Rescue and Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS)and we had a great time doing it! 

The winners then?

Monster Beard winner Rob Young 

 Freak Freestyle winner Tim Hodge 

Business Beard winner Danny Maxwell

Moustache winner Martin Doherty

Homemade winner Lorraine Howard 

Partial Beard winner Simon Sheffield 

Beard I'd Like To Fondle (BILF) winner Brian Eva 

 Beerdfester winner Michael 'John Bull' Wallage 

THANKS! 

Thanks to brilliant venue manager Becky at Constellations - without whom I could not do my Beerdfest! Thanks to the wonderful team who looked after us on the day too, think you can still grab a Beerdfest beer (from Liverpool Craft Beer) behind the bar if you're quick!

Thanks to our ace judge panel this year - Richard Singleton from The Essential Journal, Roger Phillips (wonderful last minute stand in for lovely daughter Ellie Philips), Michael 'chops' Wallage and boss beard art maker Maya Battle - for giving up time to come along and do the points bit as the beards did their catwalk thing 
and thanks to Ben Power for the sounds as we catwalked! 

Ta to our ace acoustic music makers !!! Maddie Stenberg, SheBeat, Neildsy, Joe Kelly (JG & The Pelato), Benn Helm - (and almost Liz Owen and Eleanor Nelly too... long story!) 

Thanks to our generous partners this year Beard of Liverpool, Attitude for Men  (L1 Topshop), Lush Spa Liverpool, The British Beard Club, Liverpool Craft Beer, Mariner Jack, Bristlr App and everyone else who donated prizes in our charity raffle including Old Country Gent, Bearded Birmingham, Sumatran Orangutan Society and our beardy legend patron SIR BRIAN BLESSED!!! 

Thanks to awesome pictures from Georgia Flynn Creative & Bluethumb Photography. All rights reserved 2016. 

See you next time? ;) 

Furry faces takeover Liverpool for World Beard Day

Beards, beer and music – what’s not to like?

Saturday 3rd September is World Beard Day, but it’s also the fifth annual BeerdFest -Liverpool's original beard and moustache contest!

The popular festival – endorsed by bearded legend Brian Blessed - offers beer and respect to winners, and a great day out for contestants and spectators from across the North.

A fab local music line up will accompany the beard fun at our home in the Baltic Triangle, Constellations from 2pm.

Beard contesting gets started at 4pm hosted by the tashwag/ organiser Jodie Schofield and Tom Singleton from The Essential Journal, when the best in northern facial hair hits the catwalk, a sight not to be missed! Save the date for a great day out!

Brian Blessed is patron and supporter of the festival: "It's delightful that people are coming together and celebrating beards. I've always enjoyed mine. If you want a fun day out, Beerdfest in Liverpool will do the trick."

Raising money for local charities via donations and a raffle, Beerdfest has gone from strength to strength since it started in 2012, and thanks to its popularity, has inspired the national contest to come to Liverpool later this year. 

Festival creator Jodie Schofield loves hosting the hairy event: “Beerdfest is such a fun day for all the family. Hundreds of beards and beard lovers join us every World Beard Day to celebrate beards. Beards, beer and music is just a winning combination – what’s not to like? With folks coming from across the North West, and beyond, we’re probably Liverpool's most fun festival!"

Judges 2016 

Previous Best Partial Beard champion Michael Wallage will make his debut on the judge panel, joined by fabulously bearded Richard Singleton from The Essential Journal, and Chris Edwards, local hipster and moustachioed chap. And making sure the bearded style is on point – Ellie Phillips! 

Categories 2016 

Best Monster Beard 

Best Business Beard

Best Partial Beard

Best Moustache

Best Homemade

Best Kids Homemade 

Beerdfest Freak (Freestyle)

Audience members can also win! 

Open to all awards will go to Beerdfest BILF and Best Beerdfester.

Register your category on the day before 3pm or email your category of choice to beerdfestliverpool@gmail.com

BeerdFest Saturday 3^rd September, Constellations, 2pm - 9pm 

Like and Share us on Facebook 
Find us on Twitter @beerdfestlpool

Beerdfest: My Barefaced Story

Once upon a time in Liverpuddle... I started a beard and moustache contest called BeerdFest... Little did I know what an adventure it was about to be!!!

Back in 2007 I started this beard blog after attending the World Championships held, that year, in Brighton, where I happened to be visiting a best friend... I met lots of wonderful folks including this guy Jack, who was then Full Natural Beard Champion, and was instantly sucked into the fabulous world that is beard contesting!!!

In Liverpool in 2012 on a dreary mid-week December night I held my first BeerdFest, a direct reaction to the UK contest being hosted in the South East, I wanted to make bearding fun for northerners! I discovered a wonderful organisation called The British Beard Club were the people to know and David Dade the President was kind and welcoming of my event... (He even came up to judge a couple of times all the way from Brighton). 
More folks than I could have ever imagined showed up - clearly this was what everyone had been waiting for! A chance to show off their glorious follicle prowess on my catwalk! So we did it again the following year and that time around somehow I organised giving Brian Blessed a Lifetime Achievement Award... which he accepted in a way only Brian can ^_^ 

Beerdfest 2014 - Life time achievement award - Brian Blessed from Beerdfest Liverpool on Vimeo.

Henceforth, Brian became patron of the festival - who better to fly our flag?! We supported men's mental health campaigners C.A.L.M. and helped to promote #SaveTheMale in 2014 - by this time word in the beard community (yes that's a real thing, and it's filled with lovely awesome sorts of folks) had spread, Beerdfest was on the map! People loved it! People came from far and wide - Brighton, Essex, the Midlands, Yorkshire, Blackpool - even the Wirral! (local joke there kids) #wow !!!



Then in 2015 I stalked Seasick Steve to give him a Lifetime Achievement Award which I'm sure he still keeps in a safe place... 



THEN in 2015 the maddest thing happened!!! Remember, if you will, how I started this fun to give northeners some beard-glory? WELL thanks to the local beard club (who met each other and formed at Beerdfest 2012) the national contest is being held this year.... (drumroll) ... IN LIVERPOOL!!!
Surely am now deserving of some kind of blue plaque for bringing awesome beards to the city?! Very proud of my efforts and long may fabulous beards be welcome in the beautiful north ^_^ 

So - THANKYOU to everyone who has supported, attended, competed with us along the way... Without you it simply wouldn't happen!!! 2016 here we are, year FIVE of the fest... Let's do it all again on World Beard Day, Saturday September 3rd - come along! You might love it as much as I do ^_^ 

Ps. Look for us in these exciting places should you feel the urge: 

www.facebook.com/beerdfest 
www.twitter.com/beerdfestlpool
www.instagram.com/beerdfest 

Beards of New York

These are a couple of beards I met in New York on my recent visit... 












The white bearded gent is Andre, a classical trombonist no less! 
I met him outside the Seinfeld cafe (Tom's Restaurant)uptown Manhattan and he was nice enough to allow me to take his picture for this blog... 

It's mostly a lot of fun to approach strangers in the street to ask to snap their bearded glory - they're both surprised and flattered usually and keen to be involved, it's a little bit of extra joy in both our days ^_^ My friend Gene, who also does a blog of which there is a book too) papped me popping the question - see how charming I am? haha 

The dark bearded chap is Jeff who is an actor/ barman. I met Jeff while attending the open mic night at The West on Union Ave/ Hope St in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He said the beard had been off and on for a number of years, only ever coming off for a part... I think it really suits him tho... 

I'm going to be trawling the North West of England for awesome beards in the run up to BeerdFest 2016(our 5th birthday!)so if you know of an awesome beard in the neighbourhood I'm happy taking tips! 

We did it again ^_^

Thanks to all involved making another BeerdFest happen ^_^ I'm exhausted but still smiling... more pics to follow but in short your winners for 2015 are:

Best Fake Hilary White// Best Moustache Martin Doherty// Best Partial Michael Wallage// Best Beard Wayne Harrison// Best Beerdfester Liz Owen// Beerdfest Badass Rob Young// Baltic BILF Chris Anderson// 

And the next time we get together will be Saturday September 3rd 2016 #savethedate ;)