The Vancouver Craft Beer and Music Festival takes place in July at the PNE fairgrounds. The event features bands, food trucks and lots of craft breweries.

The festival is popular and tickets usually sell out. In the past it has been a two-day event. In 2023, however, it’s just a one-day affair on July 8th.

CRAFT BEER FESTIVALS IN THE FALL

The summer might be over, but that doesn’t mean craft beer festival season is over. Far from it in fact! Lots of beer-themed events happen in Autumn. In addition to Oktoberfest events, in Autumn there is North Shore Craft Beer Week, the Whistler Village Beer Festival and a variety of other beer-themed events.

Craft Beer Festival in Vancouver

In 2022 the much-anticipated Vancouver Craft Beer Week (VCBW) event happened on the Saturday and Sunday of July 9th and 10th (so a week after the Canada Day Long Weekend).

This past year the event showcased over 150 craft beers and ciders. It also featured concerts by some fairly big-name bands. Bedouin Soundclash and Titus Bank performed on the Saturday. Headliners for the Sunday were Half Moon Run and Scratch Bastid.

Single day tickets started at $30 with two-day passes at only $49. VIP passes started at $75 for one day tickets or $120 for a two-day pass. Here is the part you need to know. .. As tickets sell and the date of the event draws closer, the prices go up. So reserve your spot as soon as you can to secure your tickets for the lowest price.

Where and When

The festival took place in 2022 on the Friday and Saturday of July 9th and 10th. As many as 15,000 people were expected!

The festival is a one-day outdoor event at Vancouver’s PNE fairgrounds. The venue’s address is 2901 East Hastings Street which isn’t far from the Trans-Canada Highway.

In 2022 the festival ran from 3:00 pm until 7:00 pm over two days (but started one hour earlier for VIP ticket holders).

Vancouver Craft Beer Festival Stage — Main Stage at the Beer Festival in 2022

Admission Rates & Prices

In 2022 general admission to the Vancouver Craft Beer Week Festival at the PNE cost about $30 if you bought the tickets well in advance. Once enough pre-sale tickets sold the price bumped up to $40 and then to the regular full price of $49 by the time of the event itself. That’s for one-day tickets. Two-day passes cost $49 at first and then went up to about $79.

In 2022 there were also VIP passes which were around $75 for one day and then jumped to around $85. A two-day VIP pass started at about $120 and then went up to $160. VIP guests could arrive at the event an hour earlier and have access to nicer washroom facilities and a special RV area.

Pre-sale access to tickets for the Vancouver Craft Beer Week festival in 2023 open on Tuesday, March 14th, at 10:00 am.

(Note: Ticket prices and other details are subject to change.)

For the event’s official website visit vancouvercraftbeerweek.com.

What to Expect at the Beer Festival

Expect to be in craft beer heaven at the event (assuming you like beer or cider and live music). At the Vancouver Craft Beer Festival there are rows upon rows of stalls offering craft beer samples. Breweries come from across North America, but primarily from the Lower Mainland, other parts of BC and even the West Coast of the US most years.

At the festival there are also numerous food trucks selling everything from fish & chips to burgers and ethnic foods. There are also stages set up around the venue with live music.

The atmosphere at the festival is fun and the crowd is of all ages, but primarily young and male with the average age of participants probably close to around 30.

New for 2023, the event promises to have faster lines than last year and free water on site (but you’ll have to take your own water bottle). Also new for this year, beer samples are included with the admission price (whereas in the past you had to pay for each one).

Craft Beers and Ciders

This isn’t any rinky-dink beer festival. VCBW is the largest craft beer festival in the Pacific Northwest and it attracts the largest selection of premium craft beer and cider available within BC. Guests at the event can try several of the close to 200 beers and ciders that are showcased. House of Funk, Studio, Deep Cove, Stanley Park, 33 Acres and about 100 other incredible breweries participate.

Craft Beer Festival PNE Venue — VCBW at the PNE Grounds

Festival Food Trucks and Chefs

VCBW puts together an incredible list of the best food trucks from around the city making a stop at the main event. If that wasn’t enough, the organizers have connected with some of the region’s top chefs and others to do chef-driven pop-ups. Be sure to bring your appetite to the event!

The Music Festival

In addition to beer samples and food vendors, at the weekend beer festival there is also live music. Feaster, the producers of VCBW, put together an incredible list of live talent. In 2022 Bedouin Soundclash and Half Moon Run headlined the weekend with artists such as Skratch Bastid, Titus Bank and several others filling out the rest of the bill. It was an impressive lineup!

Bedouin SoundClash on Sunsetter Stage — Bedouin Soundclash in 2022

Bedouin Soundclash Video

As already mentioned, Bedouin Soundclash was one of the two main headliner bands performing at the craft beer festival in 2022. The other headliner group was Half Moon Run.

Bedouin Soundclash performed in Vancouver in 2021, at the Shipyards Festival in North Vancouver in September. The video below shows scenes of the band at that event. As you can see, they are a great band and very popular. It was exciting to see them back again in the Lower Mainland in 2022!

Vancouver Craft Beer Festival Video

To give you an idea of what the beer festival looks like, check out the following video. It shows scenes of the festival from 2022. As you’ll see, it’s a big event with lots of beer vendors and people having a great time.