Bière à Lille: a guide to the BAL beer festival

Events · Every year in early November · Gare Saint-Sauveur and across the metropolis

In a region that has been brewing for centuries, a festival on this scale was overdue. Founded in 2017, the BAL has become one of France's major beer events: a full week of happenings across the metropolitan area, then a closing weekend bringing nearly seventy breweries together under the glass roof of a former goods station.

It isn't a beer fair in the usual sense. The spirit is closer to a tasting: you come to discover styles, talk to the brewers, and drink small measures.

How it works

The festival runs in two parts, and it's worth understanding that before booking anything.

• The week: around fifty events across bars, breweries and cultural venues. Tastings, workshops, collaborative brew days, meet-the-brewer sessions. Most of them are free.
• The closing weekend: the big gathering at the Gare Saint-Sauveur. This part is ticketed.

2026 is the ninth edition: 2 to 8 November, with the grand finale on the 7th and 8th.

The big weekend at Gare Saint-Sauveur

This is the heart of it. Close to seventy breweries, French and international, set up at 17 boulevard Jean-Baptiste Lebas, in a former goods station turned cultural venue. A guest country is featured each year.

Alongside the brewers you'll find home brewers, ciders and alternative drinks, plus cooking demonstrations and beer-and-food pairings.

Entry runs at around eight euros a day, with a better rate for the full weekend, and it's free for under-18s. Your tasting glass is handed over at the entrance and included in the price.

What to know before you go in

• You drink only from the festival glass. You can buy bottles at the stands to take away, but drinking them on site isn't allowed.
• Last entry is roughly an hour before closing. Turn up at the last minute and you risk being left outside.
• Entry can be paused once capacity is reached. Saturday afternoon is the busiest slot: come at opening time or late in the day instead.
• Dogs are not admitted to the Gare Saint-Sauveur.

Getting there

The Gare Saint-Sauveur is right in the centre, about fifteen minutes on foot from Lille-Flandres station. By metro, line 2 to Lille Grand Palais or Mairie de Lille.

Driving makes little sense: parking is difficult in the area on a festival weekend, and above all, you're coming to drink. The metro runs late, so use it.