Sydney Beer Week (SBW) will return from 20–29 October, expanding to include new events and venues in the city’s west, north, south and east.
“Sydney Craft Beer Week, as the festival was previously known, did a tremendous job turning Sydney into a global craft beer city under the stewardship of Joel Connolly and with the support of the local beer community” said festival director, Dave Phillips.
Phillips explained that dropping ‘craft’ from the festival title and expanding the footprint is all about making Sydney Beer Week more inclusive and aligned with the current direction the beer industry is moving in.
“Our vision is to deliver a world class celebration of beer – for consumers, producers, venues and communities. This means continuing the great work done by the previous owners and expanding the festival to reach more of Sydney. We want to provide opportunities for the beer curious as well as those already passionate and knowledgeable across as much of Greater Sydney as we possibly can,” he said.
The flagship events of SBW 2017 will include an opening gala tasting event, the Sydney Beer Awards, the Hair of the Dog breakfast and the new Food Truck Corral. A Festival Hub will also be established with SBW staff on hand to advise visitors on festival events, over a cold beer of course. Festival events will be arranged into five streams – food, education, activities, technology and showcase.
Liam Pereira, SBW general manager, has seen a big change in Sydney’s beer community in recent years.
“As the beer industry has grown and matured, and peoples’ palates have changed, the conversation is not about craft or mainstream beer – it’s more about what kind of beer people like to drink. We have seen bars across Sydney embrace all styles of beer – you can have a watermelon sour as your mate beside sips on a traditional pale lager and we think this is great,” he said.
SBW has put in place a team with a broad range of expertise across the beer, events, hospitality, and tourism industries with the aim of cementing the festival’s presence on Sydney’s event calendar. The SBW team have started discussions with breweries and venues across Sydney to develop events for SBW17, and are encouraging beer fans to talk to their favourite beer venues about getting involved. Any venues interested in participating should contact SBW.
