The Federation Square Victorian Microbreweries Showcase has been a fixture in the Melbourne beer calendar for years. In recent years, the bi-annual event has grown to fill every nook and cranny of the Atrium with brewers, brewing companies and stalls touting craft beer related businesses. It has drawn queues over its two nights that have meandered around the edges of the venue and along Flinders Lane. Most recently, a Cider Garden has been installed in the BMW Edge too.
And now it’s set for its biggest shake up yet; in fact, the event known as the Microbreweries Showcase is no more and will be replaced with the “Flavour Exchange”. This new event will run quarterly and, from 2014, will move from a Wednesday and Thursday evening to Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. Perhaps the biggest change, however, is the addition of wine to the lineup.
The new concept has been created by Dig&Fish, the marketing business that has taken over event management for the Showcase Series from Fed Square this year. Dig&Fish was recently formed following a merger of Dig Marketing and 2Fish Management, who between them have wide experience in the food and drinks worlds. The challenge from Fed Square was to take events that had been following a similar format for a decade and evolve them into something fresh.
“The Dig&Fish response proposed a new style of event for highly engaged consumers who have an ever-broadening interest across all drinks categories,” says Angie Bradbury, co-founder of Dig&Fish. “The explosion of food and lifestyle content, interest in provenance of food and drinks and a desire to meet the people who make it all happen has been the foundation of the Flavour Exchange concept.”
As well as bringing beer, wine and cider together, this will also see the introduction of seasonal themes for each Exchange.
“Food is a very important element that we want to have a higher profile and we very much want to see the event become a genuine experience as opposed to the same, traditional tasting / drinking format that we have all seen so much of,” says Angie.
Anyone who’s visited a Microbreweries Showcase in the past couple of years will know that space is already at a premium, so the plan is to expand into other areas of Fed Square. The first two events under the new setup will use the Atrium and the Edge along with additional venue spaces and exhibition days.
As for the split in exhibitors, Angie says it will “depend on the expressions of interest” with “the main weighting … toward craft beer and wine with cider and then food producers.”
The dates for the first four Flavour Exchanges are:
Spring 2013
October 2 and 3
Summer 2013
December 4 and 5
Autumn 2014
March 20 to 22
Winter 2014
June 19 to 21
The Autumn and Winter events – and presumably those that follow – will run from Thursday to Saturday.
“We want to be able to maximise opportunities for a broad range of consumers to attend the event extending into the weekend and Friday evening makes sense from that point of view. We understand this presents potential challenges for exhibitors who may be busy running their venues and cellar doors on the weekends and there are commercial decisions that will need to be made by all exhibitors.”
Registrations are now open for exhibitors wanting to be a part of October’s Spring event, who are encouraged to “think all things of the new season, bright new growth, fresh flavours, colour and energy.” The fee for a stand us $200 plus GST, with a limit of three products on show per producer. Entry for attendees remains $25 plus booking fee.
“We have had significant positive feedback from a broad range of producers and look forward to working with them to deliver a fantastic event that drives value for the exhibitor and the visitor,” says Angie.
So what do you think? Was the Showcase in need of a revamp? Will adding wine to the offering make for a better event?
