The festival chairman, Russ Gilbert, is into the fourth year of his spell at the helm and appears, outwardly, to treat the whole exercise very calmly.
Last year, the organisers had to cope with the fact that the regular venue, the Assembly Rooms, was being refurbished. This year, they have had to work with the fact that it is currently closed altogether, following the recent fire on the roof.
If there is a plus in that, it turns out that staging the majority of the festival in a large marquee on the Market Place last year was, unknowingly, a dress rehearsal for this year.
Russ was at Leicester beer festival when flames started leaping from the Assembly Rooms and soon his phone was almost as hot – as if he could do anything about it!
"At first there was some thought that we might be able to use the hall but without hot water or air conditioning," he says.
"Then they let us know, just before the official announcement, that the Assembly Rooms would be closed. At the same time, they assured us that the festival could go ahead."
"They" being Derby Live: "They have been absolutely first-class," says Russ. "It would have been easy for them to say 'no festival.' In the end, we're volunteers and they're running a business. But they've done everything they can to help."
Let's dispel a myth. The capacity in the marquee, the outside standing area and an outside awning will be 1,900, much the same as for Assembly Rooms festivals, so there's no need to think queuing will be any more or less than usual.
Advanced online booking was introduced last year and worked well: 498 people booked in advance for Saturday night. It's in place again this year and it's a queue-buster, for sure.
The festival opens on Wednesday, July 9, at 6.30pm and is open 11am-11pm Thursday to Saturday. There's a free session from noon-2pm on Sunday but no-one should go along expecting the full range of beers that day, of course.
Russ and his army of volunteers are almost ready. His fingers are crossed and my guess is everything will go smoothly. It's the 37th summer festival and they're quite good at this by now.
