Up until today, we'd always featured the people that make or sell beer in our Ten Lessons From Ten Years series. Now it's time for something a little different.
Given the challenges of the past few years, any major event that's still running – and selling out (the last tickets for this year's festival will probably have gone as I type these words) – deserves recognition. When that's a festival that's unlike pretty much any other and runs in regional Victoria in winter, it's even more deserving.
"The catalyst for Bendigo On The Hop was when I was hanging around with the brewers. I was talking to Dave [Bonighton] from Mountain Goat, Ben [Kraus] from Bridge Road, and Paul from Holgate," festival founder Trev Birks recalls.
"We were chatting about how they were sick of how the beer festival format was, even then, ten years ago: in a field or at a race track, and how it wasn't extracting any value for the brewers."
Given he was part of a small team that had set out to turn Bendigo onto craft beer under the Bendigo Beer banner, and had tested the water with homebrew comps and tastings, he set about conceiving something that would work for both brewers and the venues he was attempting to change. Thankfully, the answer he came up with has proven to be a winner for beer drinkers too: when the tenth Bendigo On The Hop takes place on August 31, it will be the ninth time out of ten the organisers have sold every ticket.
It's an impressive feat for any major event, not least one taking place in winter in a city a couple of hours north of Melbourne, but which has survived without too many years being impacted by unpleasant weather. The fact it's very format was so different to other beer festivals at the time – attendees receive a tasting glass and tokens for beers from each of the brewers, then wander the city at their leisure, sampling at each host venue as they go – and has been mirrored but never bettered since, is merely the icing on the pastry stout.
"Stubborn. Passionate," are the words Trev chooses when asked how they've notched up a decade through a pandemic and cost-of-living crisis. "I'm stubborn and we all are on the committee. We're just so proud that we refuse to let it drop off.
"We refer to it as the little festival that can. We aren't the biggest but we are one of the best."
While some host venues have come and gone, a few are BOTH lifers: The Cambrian, The Rifle Brigade and Black Swan have been involved since day one, according to Trev, while Handle Bar will celebrate nine years on Saturday.
"We've evolved with the beer scene in Bendigo too," he says. "It's been our job to ensure that venues in the CBD are proudly supporting the independent beer scene so we can continue to run our event. And that ensures there's good beer all year round."
The eagle-eyed might have spotted one small change to programming this year: it's the first time not every brewery in attendance is independent, with Mountain Goat and Fixation invited along for the tenth birthday celebrations.
"We wanted to thank those that helped us from the start," Trev explains. "Mountain Goat helped kick Bendigo On The Hop off 12 years ago.
"This was the first year we didn't call for nominations, we selected who we wanted to be here for sentimental reasons as it's our birthday."
With the long-mooted Bendigo Brewery finally entering the home straight, there will soon be another operation bringing local beer to the city all year round. As for the festival that's played such a crucial role in supporting small breweries over the past decade, Trev says: "It's been sustainable from day one. And the format includes all stakeholders, which is rare these days."
The main event might be sold out, but there's still tickets left for some of the preceding Bendigo Beer Week events, including the event we're hosting with Holgate, plus a free party on the Friday night at The Cambrian. Before then, however, here's Bendigo On The Hop's Ten Lessons From Ten Years.
1. Community Engagement
From the start, Bendigo On The Hop was designed to foster a strong sense of community, both here in Bendigo and around Australia.
2. Focus on Independent Beer
The festival has remained true to its core mission of promoting a better beer culture and, of course, independent breweries. Over the years, the emphasis on quality and originality has been a driving force behind the festival's success.
3. Resisting Expansion and Growth
Seems a weird concept, but being restricted in capacity due to the number of venues we have to work with actually stamped our success in being financially sustainable from day one.
Limiting the tickets to 2,000 to 2,200 means we know what to expect, we know how to manage cost volatility ... but most importantly, our dedicated punters enjoy the exclusive feel to it, knowing they won’t be lost in a huge crowd at a festival trying to be everything to everyone.
4. Event Format
The "movable feast" format, where attendees stroll from one venue to another, has been a hit since the beginning. This unique approach allows participants to explore Bendigo’s historic venues while enjoying beer and live music, making the experience both immersive and engaging.
As with all innovation, others have adopted our format but we still believe our event is the most authentic and educational. Which leads to...
5. Adapting to Challenges
The festival has faced various challenges, including COVID lockdowns, other festivals adopting our format, and now, more recently, other festivals running around or on our traditional date.
While initially this caused a sense of frustration, we quickly moved on. We’re not scared of innovation or change, so we’re working on something new for everyone to copy in the years to come.
6. Cultural Impact
Bendigo On The Hop has played a pivotal role in establishing Bendigo as the craft beer destination in regional Australia. The festival has helped put Bendigo on the map, attracting visitors from all over the country and boosting local tourism.
Good Beer is now part of our DNA – it’s a great feeling.
7. Sustainability
There has been an increasing focus on sustainability, both in terms of environmental impact and supporting the local economy. We have made efforts to reduce waste and encourage the use of local ingredients, which aligns with broader trends in the craft beer industry.
8. Diversity of Experiences
The festival has expanded its offerings beyond just beer tasting to include food pairings, live entertainment, and interactive sessions with brewers, enhancing the overall experience for attendees.
9. Feedback and Improvement
Listening to feedback from attendees has been crucial in refining the festival. We’ve continuously tweaked aspects of the event based on participant input, leading to improvements in logistics, beer selection, and overall event management.
10. Longevity and Legacy
After ten years, Bendigo On The Hop has become a staple of the Australian beer event calendar. Its success is a testament to the dedication of our team and venues, the enthusiasm of the participants, and the unwavering support from the local community.
More on Bendigo Beer Week here, with tickets for the Like It's '99! tasting, meet the brewers and trivia event here (or here if you're a Crafty Cabal member). More in the Ten Lessons From Ten Years series here.
Photo at top of article features (left to right) Trev with the key festival brewery sponsors over the years: Ben Kraus of Bridge Road Brewers; Dave and Cam Hines of Mountain Goat; and Tash and Paul Holgate.
James Smith launched The Crafty Pint in 2010, two years after moving to Australia from the UK. He was taken to Mountain Goat within weeks of landing in Melbourne, joined their indoor cricket team, and is still navigating the rabbit hole that is craft beer to this day.
The beers that turned you on to good beer:
- Watching pints of McEwan's 80 Shilling settle when visiting family in Edinburgh.
- Pints of flat Bass from the jug at the Cap & Stocking in Kegworth.
- A first Paulaner Hefeweizen when working in Munich in 1998: “This smells of bananas!”
- Castle Rock Harvest Pale – how could a 3.8 percent ABV beer be so good? (It turns out it was an early example of the three Cs – Cascade, Centennial and Columbus – in an English bitter).
- Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA poured through hops at the Sunset Grill in Cambridge, MA, in the company of a man who turned out to be the Beer Nut (while we were both covering a double murder case at the time).
- Ordering a Mountain Goat Hightail on my first day as an Aussie resident as it was local and I’d never heard of it; “A dark Australian beer; well I never…”
- Murray’s Icon 2IPA at Beer DeLuxe Fed Square, recommended by a guy I’d not long known who's now the main man at Fixation, served by Mik Halse, now head of sales at Hawkers. How could an Australian beer smell as good as that?!?
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
- Any really good, fresh and balanced West Coast style IPA. Punchy hop aromatics are the most obvious way to capture someone's attention and these IPAs, done well, present the key components in beer (if you're sticking to just water, malt, hops and yeast) in harmony yet with the volume turned up.
- Saison Dupont. Arguably a selfish choice here as I bloody love the broad saison style and dearly hope it will finally take hold in Australia one day. Given a choice, I'd probably crack one enlivened with Brettanomyces like Molly Rose Matilde for myself but, when it comes to turning on someone new, you've got to go with the classic.
- Rodenbach Caractère Rouge. Because if you don't enjoy or can't appreciate this beer, I'll never win you over. And because Filip, the fruit and wood specialist at Rodenbach that designed it, is a beautiful human.
The last beer you enjoyed:
Fixation IPA at The Incubator.
Three things that represent you:
- The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- Golden Plains
NB All articles written by James in the first eight years of the site appear as By Crafty Pint. Today, that's used for collaborative efforts by the wider team.
