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.
In 2023 the festival ran from September 11th to 17th.
WVBF Beer Festival in 2023
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 in 2023. It returned as an in-person event in 2022 after being cancelled the previous two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The main event involves multiple breweries 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 2023 Whistler Village Beer Festival took place on Saturday, September 16th. It ran from noon until 6:00 pm in Whistler’s outdoor Olympic Plaza.
At the main event dozens of craft breweries set up all around the plaza and participants go from stall to stall exchanging tokens for their choices of over a 100 different beers and ciders. Attendees receive an official WVBF sampling mug and there is usually live music as well. As many as 3,000 people attend in years with good weather.
Festival Breweries
At the Whistler Village Beer Festival more than 50 different breweries participate with over 100 beers and ciders on offer. Some of the breweries are from the Whistler and Sea to Sky area, many are from Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, most are from somewhere in British Columbia and a small number are from out of 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 about 36 or so 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 2022 the first place winner was Coast Mountain Brewing from Whistler. In second place was Backcountry Brewing from Squamish, and in third place was 3 Dogs Brewing from White Rock. 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 were scheduled to perform at the beer festival in 2023 were as follows. (Note: All performances were 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 so 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 at other times of the year 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.
