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Kelowna  

New beer fest on tap for May

Get your growlers, a new beer festival could be coming to Kelowna this Spring.

The Great Okanagan Beer Festival is the brainchild of the Gibbons Hospitality Group which has organized the Whistler Beer Festival for the past two years. 

The proposed location is Waterfront Park near the Delta Grand Hotel and the idea is to have a craft beer festival that celebrates beer while showcasing local businesses. 

"We try and tie in local bars and restaurants to use their locations for programming and events," said Gibbons Hospitality festival and events planner Liam Peyton. "We're not one of those festivals that comes through town and takes a bunch of money and leaves."

Peyton just finished a tour of Kelowna on Monday and Tuesday where he met with the city, the tourism board and stakeholders within Kelowna.

A tentative date has been set for May 7 to 9. Peyton envisions a couple of days of beer and food pairing events, cask events and beer seminars hosted at local bars and restaurants before the actual beer festival which he hopes can be held in Waterfront Park on Saturday May 9.

He said local stakeholders have been enthusiastic so far.

"Just talking with some of the bar owners, they said two days wasn't enough. They were talking about a week of beer events."

Chad Douglas at Tourism Kelowna said the Okanagan already does wine promotion really well, but that "beer is another piece of the puzzle."

"I just happened to read about it in BC Business that the Whistler Beer festival was looking to expand to other cities," he said. "Interest in beer is exploding locally and I just thought 'what an opportunity to get craft beer into Kelowna at a good time of year.'" 

Steve Caroll co-owner of the Train Station Pub and the Mission Taphouse said festivals are always good for business.

"It's absolutely a positive for us," he said. "Just exposing more people to craft beer - [At the Train Station Pub] We carry 10 lines of craft beer and people definitely continue after the beer festival which typically close down a bit earlier."

Peyton said the next step is another meeting in early February to sit down with RCMP, the liquor board and the city's Outdoor Events Committee.

"We're facing zero resistance right now," he said. "Things are looking extremely positive. And a lot of people are getting really excited on social media as well."

A Facebook page has been set up for the festival and a website is soon to follow.

Peyton said they are looking for community partners to "help make the festival more than one tasting event," and to contact him at [email protected]



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