Another round
Cape Breton Beer Festival returns for second year
The ‘no brainer’ combination of music, food and beer has quickly made Cape Breton Beer Festival one of the most anticipated trade shows around.
The second edition of the festival goes Saturday night after craft beer vendors and those who enjoy their products clamoured for a place on the floor of the Joan Harris Cruise Pavilion.
“Originally, I had intended all along to do a wine, spirit, beer show because there used to be the NSLC show years ago and they stopped,” said Nigel Kearns of N Kearns Event and Project Solutions, producers of the event with 902 Advertising Group.
“They were a really good time. I knew they could be done — a lot differently.”
It’s the social aspect of the show that’s somewhat different than those spirit shows people might have attended in the past.
Cape Breton’s theatre in the round approach to the festival Kevin Farrell of Sound Source Pro Audio is shown preparing some of the sound work for the Cape Breton Beer Festival, while Nigel Kearns of N Kearns Event and Project Solutions looks on. The second beer festival will take place today at the Joan Harris Cruise Pavilion.
allows patrons to circle the vendors for continuous samples.
Their sound system set up allows you to easily enjoy conversations with vendors or you can just step back to enjoy some
music.
“Obviously, for the crafters they are trying to educate you on beers, so there is all kinds of discussion on their process, what is in their beer, why the flavour and what they were thinking,”
Kearns said.
“You can be here for the beer and say ‘yeah, yeah, it’s great’ take it and go off to the next booth, but a lot of people engage and it works really well.”
In year one of the show, there was considerable effort involved in attracting vendors to Cape Breton for the show. That’s not the case anymore. “The word through their network is that the Cape Breton one was the bomb. They had a really good time. Lots of the crafters said that it was the best.”
There are 22 vendors in the festival this time out — 16 of them call craft beer their speciality. Spirits will come from Nova Scotia Spirit Co. and wine from Bishop’s Cellar.
“We wanted to bring in at least one spirit and one wine for friends and spouses who might not necessarily be fond of beer. We are going to try to convert them, mind you, but you have to give them a well rounded event.”
There’s also a designated driver package for those who want to come but not drink alcohol.
Food for the show is provided by the Little Rolling Bistro, Flavor and Island Sauce Company.
So far more than 700 craft beer lovers have purchased tickets for the festival, which greatly exceeds the 500 who took in last year’s activities.
A limited number of tickets are still available. Go online to www.capebretonbeerfest.com for details.