The Whistler Village Beer Festival is an annual event at the resort town of Whistler. It features seven days of craft beer celebrations in September.
Last year the festival ran from September 11th to 17th. In 2024 the main event returns on September 14th.
This article contains the following information about the festival:
Dates and Location | Main Weekend Event | Festival Breweries | Live Music Lineup | Tips & Advice | Other Information
WVBF Beer Festival
The Whistler Village Beer Festival (WVBF) has been running since 2013. It’s hosted by Gibbons which was Whistler’s first pub and now the present owner of multiple drinking establishments.
Places in the Gibbons group today include Buffalo Bills, the FireRock Lounge, Garfinkel’s, Longhorn Saloon, Stonesedge and Tapley’s Pub, all in Whistler.
Festival Dates and Location
The Whistler Village Beer Festival ran from September 11th to 17th last year. In 2024 it once again takes place in September, with the main event on September 14th. The rest of the dates are TBC as of the beginning of June.
The main event involves dozens of beer-makers setting up booths on the weekend in the Whistler Olympic Plaza and offering crowds of people samples of their brews. Other activities over the course of the seven-day festival include themed events at various area pubs.
Festival Main Weekend Event
The main event at the 2024 Whistler Village Beer Festival takes place on Saturday, September 14th. It runs from noon until 6:00 pm in Whistler’s outdoor Olympic Plaza.
At the main event over 40 craft breweries set up all around the plaza and participants go from stall to stall exchanging tokens for their choices of over 80 types of beer and ciders. Attendees receive an official WVBF sampling mug and there is live music as well. As many as 3,000 people attend in years with good weather.
Festival Breweries
At the Whistler Village Beer Festival dozens of different breweries participate. Some of them are from the Whistler and Sea to Sky area, and many are from Vancouver and the Lower Mainland. Most are from somewhere in British Columbia with a small number from out of the province.
Participating breweries most years include Bomber Brewing, Bowen Island, Central City, Deep Cove, Granville Island, Howe Sound, Stanley Park, Steamworks, Powell, Postmark, Okanagan Spring, Moody Ales, Parallel 49, Salt Spring Island Ales, the Whistler Brewing Company and many others.
Beer Competition
At the event each year, in addition to people sampling all the different brews, there is judging of the products and people get to vote for their favourites.
In 2023 the overall first place winner was Coast Mountain Brewing from Whistler. They’ve won the competition three years in a row! In first place for canned cocktails last year was Cinco Drink Co. from Mexico. Second place overall was Backcountry Brewing from Squamish. The winning breweries have their beers featured for the next year at a couple local pubs.
For the latest information about participating breweries click Festival Beers.
Live Music Lineup
Bands and DJs that performed at the beer festival year last were as follows. 2024 details are to be confirmed as of early June. (Note: All performances are subject to change.)
Tips & Advice
Below is some advice and extra information to help you make the most of your time at the Whistler Village Beer Festival.
TIP #1: Cash, Visa and MasterCard are all accepted at the weekend main events. An ATM is also available on-site.
TIP #2: The Whistler Village Beer Festival is an adult only (19+) event. Children ages 18 and under are not allowed.
TIP #3: Except for registered service animals, pets are not allowed.
TIP #4: Re-entry to the weekend main events is not permitted. Consequently, make sure you have everything with you when you arrive and don’t go somewhere else halfway through and plan to return.
TIP #5: Shuttle bus service to and from the venue is available most years to and from both Squamish and downtown Vancouver. Last time the cost for a one-way trip from Vancouver was about $45. Click Beer Festival Travel for the latest details.
Other Information
To learn more about the festival, see the Whistler Village Beer Festival website.
In 2023 the festival in Whistler was run jointly by both the Gibbons Group (which runs a number of pubs and restaurants in Whistler) and Brewhalla (which runs a number of beer festivals in the Lower Mainland). Other Brewhalla events that sometimes take place include craft beer festivals in Chilliwack, Cloverdale, Fort Langley, North Vancouver and Port Moody.
To learn more about Lower Mainland beers, breweries and beer festivals, click Vancouver Breweries & Beer.
For details about the town and other things to do in the area, click Whistler or Sea to Sky Region.
And for a list of other major events in the Lower Mainland, see the Festivals & Events Calendar or Vancouver’s September Calendar.
