There may be no shortage of beer festivals and events in Toronto nowadays, but it wasn’t too long ago that Toronto’s Festival of Beer was the city’s only major outdoor beer event of the year. Held for many years at Historic Fort York, the Festival moved in 2009 to Bandshell Park at Exhibition Place, which is where the 17th annual edition will be taking place later this week.
While it had developed a reputation of being an aggressively rowdy and drunken swillfest in the latter years at Fort York, both the atmosphere and the quality of the Festival have improved considerably since the venue switch. President Les Murray has worked hard to increase the representation of craft breweries at the event, and while the large breweries are still there, a large section right in the centre of the grounds is dubbed “The Local,” and features exclusively members of the Ontario Craft Brewers, including Flying Monkeys, Great Lakes, Nickel Brook, Wellington and many others. New this year is “The Mash-Up,” a booth serving four exclusive beers created collaboratively by eight different OCB breweries.
To accompany the more than 120 beers and other beverages being poured at the Festival, there will be a wide array of booze-absorbing eats available from vendors including Caplansky’s Deli, The Real Jerk, La Poutine Machine and Oyster Boy, plus a Grilling Tent featuring demos by Ted Reader, Rob Rainford, Tawfik Shehata, Mark Cutrara and other local chefs. On the entertainment side of things, there will be live music happening throughout the Festival, with acts including Dragonette, The Midway State, Danny Michel, The Trews and The Sheepdogs.
The most notable thing about this year’s Festival, though, is the rebranding of the Thursday evening session into its own distinct event: The 1st annual Queer Beer Festival. As the name suggests, this is an event aimed towards the LGBT community, believed to be the first of its kind in North America. The beer and food booths will be the same as those appearing at the main Festival, while the Bandshell stage will play host to the gay-friendly sounds of Ace of Base, with support from Hunter Valentine, Lucas Silveira from The Cliks, and emcee Maggie Cassella.
The Queer Beer Festival takes place on Thursday August 4th, followed by 17th annual Toronto’s Festival of Beer on Friday August 5th to Sunday August 7th. Tickets are $38.50 for each day, or $48.50 for a “hoptimized” ticket that allows for early access and extra sample tokens. Full details including times, vendor lists and ticket ordering options can be found on the event websites, beerfestival.ca and queerbeerfestival.ca.
Photo from Toronto’s Festival of Beer website
No comments:
Post a Comment