Nine weeks tomorrow, the third Good Beer Week will kick off with a series of awesome events that herald nine days of dinners, tastings, tours, masterclasses, new brews, live brews, interstate guests, international guests, breakfasts, gigs and even a boat trip and a bucking bronco. Between May 18 and 26 there will be more than 140 events taking place at well over 100 venues across Melbourne and Victoria as the festival continues to grow up.
Those punters looking forward eagerly to its arrival (and we know there are plenty flying in and others booking the entire week off work), the good news is that there’s barely any time left to wait before you can start planning your week and booking tickets. We’ll be joining the rest of the Good Beer Week team and a collection of brewers and beer folk to start distributing programs to participating venues around Melbourne tomorrow – look out for the launch video of the day from next Wednesday – with the official launch following on Wednesday at the Fed Square Microbreweries Showcase.
The Good Beer Week team will be handing out programs and answering questions underneath a glowing beacon in the Atrium, with tickets to events also going on sale that day (March 20). We can’t say too much just now, but it’s safe to say the organisers have been blown away by the richness, diversity and quality of this year’s program – who knew the festival could come this far so quickly? It just goes to show how much Australians are embracing the craft beer revolution.
What we can say is that alongside the many events in the five streams created to make finding your ideal event easier – Beer Novice, Beer Lover, Beer Geek, Foodie and Home Brewer – there is an expanded Pint of Origin series, with seven venues in Melbourne turning over their taps to beers from Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and ACT respectively, as well as three regional Pint of Origin venues that will be pouring beers from all over the country. There are many other walk-in events throughout the week as well, including venues showcasing American and Kiwi beers. Good Beer Week also has a Festival Hub for the first time, which will feature the return of the Crafty Curates concept from the first Good Beer Week and a kitchen serving beer food til 1am, as well as “proper” media partners, with Time Out and 3RRR FM joining The Crafty Pint in helping to spread the good beer word.
At the risk of being all English Premier League football player-like and adopting a spot of “talking in the third person”, here’s what The Crafty Pint’s founder (and Good Beer Week team member) James Smith had to say of the festival for the latest media release:
“Australians are embracing the craft beer revolution sweeping the planet with gusto, and Melbourne is leading the charge. This year, half of the participating venues are new to the festival, which is a sure sign of how fast good beer is spreading.
âThe Good Beer Week team is delighted to be part of this growing appreciation of how exciting and diverse the beer world is today. In little over two years the tiny group of volunteers running the festival has seen it explode from the spark of an idea to a huge celebration featuring brewers from five continents and a program of events that will take a lot of people by surprise.â
So, look out for copies of the print program around Melbourne from this weekend and then further afield in the coming days and weeks and get ready to jump online from Wednesday to snap up tickets. A PDF of the full program will be available for downloading from the Good Beer Week website from Wednesday too for interstate and international visitors.
In the meantime, you can keep up-to-date with all the latest Good Beer Week action by making sure you are either a fan of the festival’s Facebook page, following the festival on Twitter or keeping tabs with it in photo form via Instagram.
