Festival of beer

Not that the Beer & BBQ Festival is just about ales, lagers and cooking meat over an open flame, as there will be three nights of programmed music too. Put together by three hospitality and events professionals (Marc Huber, Gareth Lewis and Aaron Sandow), it was Huber who was originally approached by an international cattle feed company to put on the festival. “They pitched the idea to me,” says Huber, who works for the Adelaide Hills Cider Company and boutique brewer Mismatch. “And while I’ve got experience in hospitality and the booze industry, I don’t really have the event background knowledge on how to do it. I’m quite good mates with Gareth [King’s Head owner who has worked on many big music festivals] and have dealt with him a lot. I approached him and we started nutting everything out bit by bit. I thought it was a real opportunity; there was nothing showcasing South Australia like this.” “Eventually we decided to not go with the original people though,” says Lewis. “They approached us and we took it on. They were an international company and we wanted to make it local produce-centric. They didn’t understand that direction as much, so we ended up going, ‘It’s a great idea. It will probably work but we’ve got a better idea and we’re going to do it’.” Lewis says the company in question wasn’t “over the moon” with their decision to go it alone but that “they understood”. “They’re not event people either, so they were relying on us to guide them. We had a better concept of what we can do, which we can hopefully pull off. It puts all the financial risk onto our laps but it’s a long-term gain for some short-term pain.” “We get to do something unique here,” Huber says. “Something that showcases South Australia. Out of the 32, 33 stalls that we have, 75 percent are local, so that’s what it’s really about: showcasing South Australia, getting noticed and riding on the wave South Australia is feeling at the moment.” The rise of boutique breweries over the last few years has mirrored the small bar momentum and appreciation of craft beer in this state. South Australia is now home to a plethora of award-winning independent beer labels. Some of these will showcase their wares at the Beer & BBQ Festival, as well as some major beer companies and cider brands. While there are smaller beer events at pubs around the city, Huber says people were crying out for a festival of this scale, especially considering interstate events such as Melbourne’s Good Beer Week and Sydney’s GABS. Huber says there is a craft beer boom in South Australia at the moment but not long ago Lewis was struggling to find local beers to put on tap at the King’s Head. “Seven years ago we couldn’t fill four guest taps basically,” Lewis says. This isn’t the case now, as there are currently 27 or 28 craft breweries and cider makers in Adelaide. So why has the boutique beer movement kicked off? “People want to drink less but drink better,” Lewis says. “There are similar events in the UK and the States, that’s what’s been happening over there for five to 10 years and we’ve been picking that up over the last three years. Seven years ago, we’d have to explain [at the King’s Head] why we didn’t have Corona, Carlton Draught or Super Dry. That’s rare now.” “It’s rare to find a bar or pub now that doesn’t have at least one rotating tap dedicated to the smaller, independent brewers,” Huber says. “It’s great to see the industry moving forward.” To be held in the Adelaide Showground’s Brick Dairy Pavilion over three days, the Beer & BBQ Festival will feature chefs such as Duncan Welgemoed and the Happy Motel crew, Drew Akin and Brendan Bell. There will also be locally programmed music each night. Friday night includes Max Savage and Cosmo Thundercat, while 5/4 Entertainment will program Saturday (featuring Timberwolf and Jesse Davidson) and Young Muscle will present Sunday’s music. Despite this, the brewers and chefs will be the stars. “My background is music festivals,” Lewis says. “I see the whole thing as like going to a music festival, but the headliners and the stars are the brewers and the chefs. The whole line-up, instead of having a dance stage and rock stage, these are the brewers and these are the chefs, the stars of the show. It will come together like a festival experience, what the Big Day Out used to be.” Having committed to three years with their major sponsor PIRSA, were there any apprehensions about setting up a three-day festival in Adelaide (with a capacity of 4000 for each day) during winter? “We see it as real opportunity,” Huber says. “There’s been press about nothing happening in South Australia outside of the Mad March period.” “We see it as an opportunity to own that month,” Lewis says. “There used to be Parklife, that was the first major event on the calendar but that’s not around anymore. There’s a massive gap in events between Groovin the Moo at the end of April and CheeseFest in October. There are a couple of wine events, but there’s nothing on the scale we want this to become.”   Adelaide Beer & BBQ Festival Adelaide Showground’s Brick Dairy Pavilion Friday, July 10 to Sunday, July 12 adelaidebeerfest.com.au