Beer Festivals Go Carney

By Tony Forder

There's been quite a lot of chit-chat regarding the new direction of the Great American Beer Festival. The old guys don't like it, it used to be all about beer. Apparently that's not enough anymore to keep Millennials and Gen Zers or whatever happy. Not surprising really, they grew up with craft beer. It's not a novelty nor a discovery.

Instead of arranging breweries by region, the GABF will be sliced up into themes, or "experience areas". There's Prost!, traditional German Biergarten (BYO Lederhosen); Halloween – well, the event is held in October; Score! sports themed – baseball playoffs and football; Beer & Beyond, liquid innovations and on-trend flavors – this the one that has craft beer traditionalists riled up; Chill - for that backyard feel; and Meet and Mingle, a new take on the Meet the Brewers theme.

I recently attended a beer festival in Gatineau, Quebec (just across the river from Ottawa). Well, I guess it was a beer festival, it was called Festibiere. (This used to be the name of the long running beer festival in Chambly before it became Bieres et Saveurs but the name was sold and repurposed. Indeed, this fest was part beer festival and part carnival fairground. There was a big pool set up with paddle boats and a Ferris wheel. You could ride for $7 or for $10 you got a beer and a bag of popcorn to take up. A few other sideshows like ring-the-bell along with furry animal prizes, some food trucks, ice cream and oh, yes there was beer.

Festibier, Gatineau, Quebec. Ferris wheel from the bottom, and the top.

One big beer tent with a pretty good draft selection, all run by a beer distributor. The only brewers present were at a couple of circular kiosks and one beer truck, or I should say converted VW bus by Chelsea & Co. Another converted VW ran cocktails alongside a sawed-off trailer wine bar. Well known beer personality Philip Wouters was doling out smoked meat on rye samples with beer pairings, sponsored by IGA grocery. He clued us into a secret door in his fridge set up that led to a container speakeasy complete with DJ and bar.

The yellow and red plastic flooring everywhere definitely had the feel of Barbie land. Although there was no band on stage the night I attended, an impressive number of people joined in the line-dancing. This night's theme was cowgirls and boys, hats and boots everywhere.

Wine, cocktails and beer.

I don't know if this is the direction GABF is heading in – "Like Never Beerfore...Grab your friends and discover your new favorite craft beer, cider, cocktails, hard lemonades, teas, and seltzers!" but it's certainly not just about beer anymore. Will they still hang Michael Jackson's visage from the rafters? Is the Beer Bard already turning in his grave?