It’s true. Everything has a beginning.
The Bent and Bongs Beer Bash came to life in 1990.
What isn’t often thought of regarding the beer bash is that below the (mostly) tranquil surface of beers, fun, food, entertainment, and general merryment, someone, or something, some legal organisation or structure, has to have a legal responsibility for governance. They have to file accounts, operate a bank account, make sure the event is run safely, and ultimately decide where the funds go. All that kind of stuff.
Back in 1990 this owning entity was the local Atherton and Tyldesley branch of The Round Table. It all ticked along very nicely with the annual event at The Formby Hall. Until 2009.
In 2009 the members of the Atherton and Tyldesley branch of The Round table took the tough decision to close this branch of the organisation. This left the beer bash without a legal home. And no legal home, no future beer bashes.
A group of the round tablers did a lot of head scratching, plenty of thinking, and a bunch of research to find the best way to fix this. Their answer was to create a Charitable Trust.
Thus in 2009 the legal entity that is the Bent and Bongs Charitable Trust was formed. The BBCT for short. This BBCT is the entity currently responsible for governing the annual Bent and Bongs Beer Bash. The BBCT is an official charity registered with the Charities Commission of England and Wales, number 1133407.
This is the little blog for this charity, created in December 2024. It’s probably not going to talk very much about financial reporting responsibilities, filing accounts, performing fire risk assessments, and all the administrative things that need to happen to enable the beer bash to go ahead each year. Instead we hope to talk a bit about where the money goes and how it gets back into the local community.
If you’ve been clicking back through the blog, at this point you’ve reached the very end, or the very beginning depending on which way you look at things. Thanks for coming with us so far. Cheers to the future …