Hop over to the Chilliwack Cultural Centre for its seventh annual craft beer festival on Sept. 21.
The Fraser Valley Culture and Craft Beer Festival returns for an evening of beer samples, various delectable appetizers, live entertainment, and a silent auction. All proceeds will be used to help fund the Chilliwack Cultural Centre’s programming.
Along with some of the best breweries in British Columbia, a number of cider companies will also be present.
“I’m excited to have the cideries present to bring something a little extra to the festival,” says organizer and development officer Delaney Bergstrom.
“We’ve also got Old Yale Brewing, Flashback Brewing and Fieldhouse Brewing which will be moving to Chilliwack as part of the new downtown revitalization project at Five Corners, so we’re going to have three local breweries in participation. Mountainview Brewing is also going to be there and they’re from Hope, which is where I grew up, so I’m very excited to have a lot of really local breweries in attendance.”
With 15 breweries, patrons will be able to sample from a wide selection and possibly discover their new favourite. Each person will receive five tokens with which to sample five different drinks. Additional tokens are $2 each.
This year’s list of participants includes Old Yale Brewing, the four-year returning winner of the Best of the Fest award. Other craft breweries attending are: Flashback Brewing, Fieldhouse Brewing, Whistler Brewing Company, Coal Harbour Brewing, Dead Frog Brewery, Steamworks Brewery, Old Abbey Ales, Parallel 49 Brewing, Yellow Dog Brewing, Fuggles & Warlock, Driftwood Brewing, and Mountainview Brewing.
The cideries include: Sea Cider Farm & Ciderhouse, Left Field Cider, Twisted Hills Craft Cidery, and Wards Cider.
There will also be a tasty selection of food that will create the perfect pairing to enhance the flavourful selection of beers.
“We have a couple new food vendors joining us this year. We had Twisted Thistle come to the wine festival and they’ve happily agreed to come back. We also have Sangam, an Indian restaurant in Chilliwack, and their food is fantastic,” says Bergstrom. “We also have Dancin Pizza who are really excited to come on board. They’ll be delivering pizzas throughout the night… you get to see these pizza boxes walking through the lobby and everyone getting to grab a slice while they’re sipping on their samples. Mr. Mike’s, Hofstede’s Country Barn, and Tulip Donair are also returning this year.”
Music will be by Live Rust that evening. The band does a “fabulous Neil Young tribute set.”
“[They] will also be doing an acoustic set which will be very beautiful,” she says.
The night will feature a harvest moon and solstice theme adding an “exciting and intimate atmosphere” to the festival.
“The event is pretty close to the harvest moon and the day before the solstice, so it’s a big celebration moving into the next phase. It’s really cool, because we’re adding new elements like the cideries, and moving into the next phase of what this festival is going to look like to keep it fresh and exciting, and not follow the same template every time,” says Bergstrom.
The seventh annual Fraser Valley Culture and Craft Beer Festival is on Saturday, Sept. 21 at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $50 and includes five tasting tokens, while additional tokens are $2 each. Tickets are available at The Centre Box Office (9201 Corbould St.), 604-391-SHOW (7469) or www.chilliwackculturalcentre.ca.
This is a 19+ event (ID required).
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