If you’re a craft beer lover filled with pride about all the great beers that come out of the ACT, attending Canberra Beerfest 2023 is a must. The festival offers you the chance to sample over 350+ craft beers, ciders, spirits, cocktails, and gourmet street eats. There’s also a huge entertainment lineup, including live music, wrestling, and live comedy.
Beerfest 2023 is presented by Canberra’s own GABS Hottest 100 winner, Bentspoke, and supported by Events ACT. Here’s all the details you need to know about the beer extravaganza:
When & Where
This year’s Canberra BeerFest will be held on Saturday, 2 December, between 1-7 pm on John Dunmore Lang Lawns off King Edward Terrace Street in Parkes, opposite Questacon.
Tickets
Tickets to Canberra BeerFest are available online through EventBrite right up until the day of the event. Only final-release tickets are available at the moment, and general admission costs $43.30. If you’ve got a whole host of friends who love Canberra beer, you can save some money by bundling five or more tickets to bring the price down to only $33.10 each.
Tickets for kids aged between 12 and 17 cost $12.70, and entry for kids under 12 years old is free of charge.
Drinks & Eats
There will be over 40 food and drink stalls on the day – too many to list in full here, but here are some honourable mentions:
Beer:
Breweries, of course, are the mainstay of the festival. Dozens of heavy hitters in the craft beer world will be in attendance from all over Australia.This includes Mountain Culture from the Blue Mountains, who was notably crowned number 1 in this year’s Gab’s Hottest 100.
Cocktails and Spirits:
Even if beer isn’t your thing, there’ll still be a wide range of distilleries and premix titans present to suit you, including Archie Rose Distillery and Billson’s Brewery.
Food:
There will be 10+ food stalls in attendance, ranging from pizza, gozleme, and octopus balls to French crepes.
Entertainment, Activities & Games
Live Music
There will be five live music performances on the Beerfest Mainstay throughout the duration of the festival. These include:
- Tiarnie -1:30 PM
- Koebi – 2:30 PM
- Archie – 3:30 PM
- Miroji – 4:30 PM
- Midnight Juggernauts (DJ Set) – 5:30
Live Comedy Shows
There will be standup comedy shows at 2 pm and 4 pm, with some big names in Australian comedy, including:
- Dilruk Jayasinha (Utopia, OXFAM Gala, The Project, Have You Been Paying Attention?)
- Chris Ryan (OXFAM Gala, Just for Laughs, The Project)
- Tom Gibson, Canberra standup comedian
- Stewart Bell, Tasmanian standup comedian and MC
Activities
There’s more to do at Beerfest than sit back, drink and eat (although that sounds pretty good). Activities include:
- Slam Wrestling will be performing live wrestling at various times
- The Cryer Malt Masterclasses, Beer Olympics, Trivia, brewer forums
- Roving performers, games and interactive fun
Stay Tuned For A Review
Our team at The Canberra Post will be in attendance – stay tuned for our thoughts to see if this year’s Beerfest lives up to the hype.