Just as craft beer in Australia has its origins in WA, so do beer weeks. While Melbourne’s Good Beer Week may be the most high profile of those in existence today, with others found in Queensland, Newcastle and Sydney, in WA they are about to embark on their twelfth. The next WA Beer Week will run from November 8 to 17, following on from this year’s Perth Royal Beer Show on November 1.
Already there have been around 80 event submissions received by the organisers, suggesting that, having stepped up significantly in size in its 11th year, the festival is set to grow even more in 2013. What’s more, there are plans for a first ever Fremantle Beer Festival to be held on Esplanade Park, across from Little Creatures. Final details of this are still to be confirmed but organisers are hoping to attract up to 10,000 punters – watch this space for more.
“Everything went really well last year,” says Reece Wheadon, AKA WA’s Beer Week Dude. “The high number of events meant a lot of people burning the candle at both ends, but that’s what beer weeks are about. This year, we’re planning to build on the strength and popularity and the branding.”
Last year, Reece worked alongside former Monk brewer Steve Brockman, now touring the States as one half of Two Brewers Abroad, to take WA Beer Week to new heights. This year, it is set to grow further.
“We succeeded in convincing everyone that June/July was a bad time to hold it,” says Reece. “Moving it to November facilitated a lot of growth because as soon as it gets cold in Perth no one goes out.
“Last year we managed to have an event in every state thanks to Feral’s tap takeovers. This year we are looking to have events everywhere from Broome to Kalgoorlie to Albany to the Margaret River. There’s also a wider range of venues and a wider range of breweries interested in taking part.”
He can’t reveal too much yet but, aside from the planned Freo Fest, there are also plans for a “Ginormous Beer School” and a degustation bringing together multiple chefs and brewers for one dinner.
For the first time in 2013, the organisers have introduced a registration fee for people wanting to run events, all of which is poured into promoting the festival: posters, flyers, print advertising and so on. There will also be a 16-page print program similar to that produced by Good Beer Week for the past two years.
“Trying to run an event like this and keep people happy when you’ve got no money isn’t very easy!” says Reece.
That’s certainly true, but having created and then maintained WA Beer Week in one form or another for so long purely with the backing of the WA Brewers Association, here’s hoping this additional funding helps them take the event to a wider audience. After all, WA may be the home of craft beer in Australia, it may be home to many of the best breweries in Australia too, but, like the rest of Australia, it still has a long way to go before craft beer can be said to have taken a serious foothold within its bars and restaurants.
The cut off date for submissions for this year’s festival is September 1. The full program is due to be announced in conjunction with a yet-to-be-confirmed media partner on September 25.
