BC Gin Festival

The BC Gin Festival is a gin-themed spirits-tasting event at Vancouver’s Roundhouse Community Centre in Yaletown.

In 2025 the festival runs from March 26th to 29th. It concludes with the main tasting event at the Roundhouse Community Centre in Yaletown on the Saturday.

Vancouver is home to a number of great festivals for other adult beverages. There’s Whisky Global Vancouver in early winter and the Vancouver International Wine Festival in the spring. There is also Vancouver’s North Shore Craft Beer Week in November. The BC Gin Festival, meanwhile, happens in March. Other adult beverage-themed events in the spring include Brewhalla North Vancouver in April and Brewhalla Fort Langley in May.

To learn about the BC Gin Festival, continue reading or visit the event’s official website at bcginfestival.com.

Vancouver’s BC Gin Festival

The BC Gin Festival is a relatively new event. In 2025 it celebrates its second year in late March. The festival is run by the Vancouver Indian Summer Festival and serves as a fundraiser for that event which happens in July.

The BC Gin Festival is a great chance to taste local and international gins, as well as dive deep into the distillery process.

In 2025 the festival features nearly 200 drinks from 30 different distilleries. Many of the distilleries are local. There are drinks from places like Tofino and Powell River in addition to the Metro Vancouver region. There are also a selection of international brands at the event from countries including England, Ireland, Finland and India.

Unlike many drink festivals, you don’t need to use tokens to get your drink samples at this event. When you attend the main tasting event you can try unlimited samples!

BC Gin Festival at the Roundhouse — Main Tasting Event at the Roundhouse

BC Gin Festival Tickets

The BC Gin Festival is only for adults ages 19 and up. The festival’s main event is the tasting night on Saturday, March 29th, at the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre. The venue’s address is 181 Roundhouse Mews in Vancouver.

Admission to the tasting in 2025 costs $98 (plus taxes and other fees). As mentioned above, that price includes all drink samples. It also includes a souvenir gin glass.

The event runs from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. For those who want some extra time to sample the gins there are VIP tickets available which allow patrons to get in an hour early. VIP tickets cost $149.

There’s also the Distiller’s Table Series which consists of three events leading up to the big day. These events are more private, with just 20 spots available for each of them. They take place at Legacy Liquor Store at 1633 Manitoba Street. These special events offer the chance to learn more about some premium gin brands, and of course try them as well!

The Distiller’s Table Events each cost $125 to enjoy on their own, or $59 when added on to a ticket to the main tasting night. Go to the BC Gin Festival tickets page to see all the options.

2025 Schedule of Events

There are three Distiller’s Table Series events in addition to the main tasting night at the 2025 festival. All of the table events happen at the Legacy Liquor Store. The festival’s main event then takes place at the Roundhouse Community Centre.

Below are details on each of the four events. Click Distiller’s Table Series for more on those three, or click BC Gin Festival for more on the main tasting night.

Salish Sea Spirits (Wednesday, March 26th, 2025)

The opening event of the 2025 festival takes place at the Legacy Liquor Store at 7:00 pm. The tagline for the Salish Sea Spirits event is “When life gives you lemons…make a gin & tonic”. Salish Sea Spirits is a small craft distillery based in Powell River that makes gin and vodka.

Guests at this event can sample gins and gin-based cocktails while also learning about the process through which each individual drink is created.

Empress 1908 (Thursday, March 27th, 2025)

Empress 1908 is the flagship drink for Victoria Distillers, an artisan company based in Sidney over on Vancouver Island. Similar to Salish Sea Spirits, guests at this event are able to sample cocktails and gin, including a special Oaken Gin which is a limited release drink. This event also begins at 7:00 pm at the Legacy Liquor Store at 1633 Manitoba Street.

Citadelle Gin (Friday, March 28th, 2025)

Citadelle is a French company that calls itself the world’s first craft gin. Founded in 1996, Citadelle has become a highly successful gin and the process and ingredients used by the distillery are on display at 7:00 pm on March 28th at the Legacy Liquor Store in Vancouver.

The drinks available to sample at the table event include a special gin that’s no longer in production for the general public.

Main Event Tasting Night (Saturday, March 29th, 2025)

The BC Gin Festival’s main event happens from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at the Roundhouse (or from 5:00 to 8:00 pm for VIP ticket-holders). There are hundreds of gins on hand from over two dozen different distilleries. There are a couple of food options for purchase too.

There’s a bottle shop at the Roundhouse as well, so, if there’s a standout sample, you can immediately get a full bottle of it. As mentioned, proceeds from the festival are used to help fund the Vancouver Indian Summer Festival which is another great event.