The best beer festival yet

PERFECT weather, a fantastic crowd and beer lovers delight in the various brews on offer, made the seventh annual Great Australian Beer Festival (GABF) one of the best according to its co-founder Michael Ward.

Close to 4,000 punters arrived to the Geelong Race Course on February 16, ready to immerse themselves in the best regional and national breweries on offer, taking advantage of the cans and larger cups.

“It was just a perfect afternoon – all the different areas and facets were in sync with one another. There was great music all day, rides and whacky races plus the piano bar… it was absolutely perfect,” Mr Ward said.

“It was a good vibe, it’s always a good vibe with the craft beer demographic. There were heaps of people that entered the races this year which we were most pleased about.

“We had some fantastic prizes on offer and around 40 people enter into the inaugural Underwear Dash.”

Mr Ward said they experienced high can sales, a testament to the philosophy behind this year’s larger cups and cans.

“There were less people having to line up, they were able to sit back and socialise more without having to continually go back and re-fill their cups,” he said.

“It was an incredible crowd. I didn’t see anyone get evicted and haven’t been told of any evictions. We had the majority of attendees travel from across the state to be there.

“Now we’ll sit down and look at what works and what we can add next year, we just want to keep adding elements every year to ensure we continue to lead the way in beer festivals.”