Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular to be held on Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast
The Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular is coming to the Sunshine State to showcase some of the best breweries from across Australia and New Zealand
QLD News
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After a year of cancellations, food and drink festivals are back on the menu with one of the country’s biggest beer events set to come to Queensland.
The Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular will take over Sunshine Coast Stadium on January 2 and Broadwater Parklands on the Gold Coast on January 9, showcasing 75 breweries from across Australian and New Zealand.
“It’s incredibly important for brewers to be able to connect with their audience again … it’s a multimillion-dollar trading opportunity,” said organiser Mike Bray.
GABS normally hosts festivals in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane at the beginning of the year, but all three events this year were cancelled because of COVID-19.
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The new summer tour will give breweries across Australia, which have been doing it particularly tough financially during the pandemic, a chance to get in front of new customers.
“A feature at the festival will be two GABS Invitational Bars, which are 40ft containers
with 120 serving taps on each, and we’ll be inviting breweries which are small and can’t get to Queensland to be a part of it to help revitalise the industry,” Mr Bray said.
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Wade Curtis, owner of Brisbane’s Ballistic Beer Co, which has operations in Salisbury, Springfield and West End, said trade was down up to 30 per cent at his breweries because of COVID. He said the festival was a great way to help boost business.
“It’s super important because not everyone can get out to our breweries or venues so it’s a really good opportunity for us to talk to the customers and it’s a great way of getting the beer into the people’s hands and getting people to try it and hopefully buy it,” Mr Curtis said.
The adults-only festival, which normally attracts 60,000 guests, will be restricted to just 5000 people per session spread over a whopping 20,000sq m of outdoor space in compliance with new COVID-safe measures.
There will be two 4.5 hour sessions at each event, with champagne and wine bars, sitting alongside the beer and food vendors, plus a giant ferris wheel and jazz and soul music stages.
Tickets go on sale November 12.
