What’s Up With What’s Going Down: Your Craft Beer Weekend Event Calendar for Sept. 6-8

Great Canadian Beer Festival returns Sept. 6 and 7. Contributed photo

Great Canadian Beer Festival

Sept. 6-7 • Victoria

The Great Canadian Beer Festival returns to Royal Athletic Park in Victoria for its 27th annual celebration of craft beer with close to 100 breweries and cideries—the most ever at GCBF! Up to 4,500 people are expected to attend the festival, and in addition to the wide array of craft breweries, attendees can expect local cideries, food trucks, exclusive cask releases and the B.C. Ale Trail-er—an on-site tap truck serving a selection of beers from breweries across the province that otherwise would not be able to participate.

This is the first year Great Canadian Beer Festival will be produced by the Victoria Beer Society (producers of Victoria Beer Week each March and the Pop-Up Beer Gardens at Centennial Square on Wednesdays and Fridays throughout this summer) following the retirement of GCBF’s founders last year. For more info and tickets, visit VictoriaBeerSociety.com/great-canadian-beer-fest/

The full beer list is available online at the Victoria Beer Society’s website here.

 

Little American Beer Fest

Sept. 6-8 • Victoria

While Canada’s best beers are being poured over at GCBF, The Drake decided to showcase some of its favorites from its friends south of the border.
The list of U.S. breweries includes: Aslan, Boneyard, The Bruery, Crooked Stave, Crux, Deschutes, E9, Ecliptic, Firestone Walker, Garden Path, Holy Mountain, Jester King, Jolly Pumpkin, Maui, Modern Times, North Coast, Oskar Blues, Oxbow, pFriem, Sierra Nevada and Stone.

No tickets required.

 

Storm’s Loading Dock Party

Sept. 8 • Vancouver

Help kick off Storm’s 25th anniversary with the first of three parties celebrating this unique and awesome brewery’s milestone. Storm’s annual family-friendly Loading Dock Party features ice cream beer floats, limited release beers and DJs. No tickets required; first come, first served; rain or shine. The party goes from 1-7pm with last call at 6:30pm.

 

Slackfest

Sept. 6-8 • Penticton

Penticton’s Slackwater Brewing is celebrating the end of summer in style with the first annual Slackfest, featuring live music and entertainment all weekend long. Since it’s soft opening three months ago, Slackwater has quickly become a local favourite and the weekend-long festival of beer and music will serve as an official grand opening for the brewery, as well as a thank-you to the people of Penticton, according to co-found Liam Peyton.

“We wanted to thank our community for bringing us to where we are today and wanted to throw a bit of a shindig!”

Slackfest kicks off Friday with the talents of Brent Tyler (7-9pm). Saturday begins with Mayor John Vassilaki cutting the ribbon for the “grand-opening” at 3pm, then a Happy Hour with live music from 3:30-6pm with the McQuaids, Timothy Hurley & Max Jones’ reggae and Bob Marley tribute from 7-9pm, followed by local favorites, Jack & Jill. Sunday winds down a pop-up surf shop from Antler’s Surf between 2 and 6pm. No tickets required, and all of the events and entertainment are complimentary.

 

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