Two of the biggest names in the Australian beer festival landscape are set to become one with the Great Australian Beer Festival (GABF) crew joining forces with the team from BeerFest Australia. Kieran Blood, director at Australian Beer Ambassadors, which runs GABF in both Geelong and Albury, told The Crafty Pint his business has welcomed new partners in the shape of BeerFest founders James Harding and Stacy File.
Since the two event companies launched – in 2013 in the case of GABF, 2010 for BeerFest, which has held large scale festivals in WA, Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland over that period – Kieran and James have regularly worked together whenever they could and, as with many breweries, the former says competition means collaboration as much as anything.
“We’re both ex-publicans – we hit it off years ago,” Kieran says. “I’ve known James a fair while and we’ve been on the blower a few times.”
While he had talked to others about coming on board in the past, he says James and Stacy were always the natural choice, particularly given their successful 2020, during which they managed to run six COVID-safe events despite the unique challenges. The last GABF took place in Geelong in February 2020, with Kieran saying he spent his time filling out smoke haze reports rather than worrying about COVID protocols.
The GABF founder says the past year has proved the BeerFest operators are ability to work flexibly with various COVID requirements and, while the festival brands have their own distinct personalities, he belongs there's much that unites them, not least their plans for growth in the near future.
“They’re just very good operators and this is exciting for GABF,” Kieran says.
“We’ve got a passion for craft beer, but we’ve got a real passion for hospitality and events as well, and a big part of that is delivering a memorable event.”
While his main focus will remain on driving the festivals in Geelong and Albury, which are set to run on January 15 and February 5, 2022, respectively, Kieran will also be on the ground working with the BeerFest team at their events; the next of those is set for Fremantle in November.
Major events remains a riskier proposition thanks to COVID – Adelaide's Beer & BBQ Fest has just been moved back to September after the SA government tightened restrictions – he says there's plenty organisers can do to run a beer festival safely.
It's a view echoed by James, who believes the events landscape now is in better shape than a year ago. What's more, he and Stacy have had a full year in which to learn how to develop COVID-safe plans – and how to adapt them even at the last minute.
“It was really scary times 12 months ago,” he says. “We were writing CVOID plans from scratch that were constantly evolving, and now we’ve got a good baseline foundation of how things need to look.”
Despite those challenges, the most recent series of BeerFests were their largest in terms of sales, with their ability to pull off each event within the different requirements in each state something he believes is due to the creativity inherent in the events space.
“The nature of events people is they’re out the box thinkers who like to be nimble and dynamic; you’ve got to put that into place with health and safety plans where things can change at the drop of the hat,” he says.
He also believes joining forces with the GABF team will bring more of that creativity under one roof.
“There's now a few more creative people at the table but with different skillsets,” he says.
“It’s more renewed energy. We almost feel like we’re hitting things fresh again with new ideas – and we’re really motivated.”
You can read our two features looking at the future of beer festivals in a post-COVID world here and here.
Will Ziebell is a history graduate who knows more about The Wire than he does about beer. He was awarded the AIBA Best Media trophy for 2018; HBO have told him to please send his fan mail elsewhere. He can be found on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
The beer(s) or moment(s) that turned you on to good beer:
Spending time living in the UK (and backpacking across Europe) when I was 21 certainly gave me a better understanding of the beer and different styles of the world. But I'd say it was a holiday to the High Country a little while later when lunch and a tasting paddle at Bridge Road Brewers created an obsession with Australian breweries and locally made beer.
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
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Boatrocker's Miss Pinky: It's a raspberry-packed Berliner Weisse that neither looks or tastes the way many people conceive of beer.
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Bad Shepherd Hazelnut Brown: A luscious mix of chocolate and hazelnut that can appeal to the sweet tooth within us all.
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Stone & Wood Pacific Ale: As the father of my oldest friend once said to me: "It's the perfect refreshing pint that smells like they've loaded it with the God's herb."
The last beer you enjoyed:
Garage Project's DFA while sitting at the bar at Miss Moses as the sounds of The Rolling Stone drifting in the background.
Three things that represent you:
- Bruce Springsteen
- Ken Burns
- The State Library of Victoria
