Capital’s next beer fest is at your house
With food events on hold for the foreseeable future, the Wellington craft beer scene is embracing a ‘‘new normal’’ and hosting their next beer festival in your living room.
BubbleFest is New Zealand’s first virtual beer festival, featuring beers from 10 breweries sent to your doorstep, and three live performers streamed to ticket holders’ devices next Saturday.
Prior to the day, one beer from each brewery will be sent out to ticket holders.
On Wednesday they had already sold 300 tickets at $73 each – 100 of those on Tuesday alone. Ticket sales close this Sunday.
Over the course of the afternoon on May 16, they will crack open each beer along with the brewer, who will have a chat about the beer, their brewery, and answer any questions from the crowd.
Bassline Brewing, Waitoa Social Club, Baylands Brewery, Juicehead, Duncan’s, Martinborough Brewery, Whistling Sisters, Abandoned Brewery, Double Vision are all Wellington based, and Cargo Brewery is getting from Queenstown.
Co-founder of Bassline Brewing Abe Guyer created the event in the downtime experienced by most brewers over lockdown.
‘‘For good reason all beer festivals are cancelled, pubs and bars are a no-go, and cafes are shut — but that means a big chunk of our social life has been cut out.’’
‘‘BubbleFest is about getting back together to socialise in a large but safe ‘virtual drinks’, and just having some fun again.’’
Amid talk about breweries having to dump stock, and sales massively down for an industry that ‘‘already runs on the smell of an oily rag’’, they didn’t have anything to lose.
‘‘This was a massive unknown. Even talking to the brewers, nobody knew what was going to happen.
‘‘I think if I didn’t know these guys it would have been a hard pitch, but once I sent out some info, everyone was on board.’’
Craft brewing in New Zealand was ‘‘an amazingly collaborative industry’’, and Guyer knew the other breweries well.
On top of the sale of beer, a cut of the profits would go to breweries to ensure their continued existence. ‘‘So supporting this beer festival is supporting local in a big way.’’
Mark Davey from Waitoa Social Club in Hataitai said the craft beer community was crying out for a bit of engagement.
With other events like BrewDay and Beervana postponed or cancelled, this event gave them a chance to connect with people, both brewers and customers.
Access to brewers in this event was unparalleled. Because beers were included in the ticket price the event wasn’t sales driven, so conversations could focus on the beers and stories behind them.
The beer Waitoa Social Club had on offer, the Hataitai IPA, was being released for the first time in cans.
‘‘It’s a strong IPA, 6.8 per cent, brewed for our locals and regulars in Hataitai,’’ Davey said, with strong flavours of peach and other stone fruit.
The event will also feature musical performances by some Wellington talent, including Lisa Tomlins, who has worked with artists such as Shapeshifter and Fat Freddy’s Drop, and Matt Pike, the lead for Whole Lotta Led and guitar/vocals for The Pink Floyd Experience.
A 90-minute DJ set will conclude the event, put on by DJ Mockingbird, otherwise known as Barrett Hocking, and is also the trumpet player for The Black Seeds.