Brb, crying.
Sad news beer lovers of Geelong – the Great Australian Beer Festival has been postponed because of a surge of the COVID-19 Omicron variant through Victoria and Geelong specifically.
Can we get a ‘fuck covid’?
Taking to social media on Tuesday, the team at Great Australian Beer Festival Geelong shared the heartbreaking news about their forthcoming event, which was slated to go ahead this weekend on Saturday, January 15 2022.
“After careful consideration and consultation with key stakeholders, we’ve made the very difficult decision to postpone GABF Geelong to the new date of 2nd April.
“Although disappointing, we believe this is the most sensible and socially responsible approach in response to the current COVID-19 situation. Our top priority is the health and wellbeing of all people involved in our events, which means that despite being deemed low-risk by national and state authorities due to the outdoor nature of our festival, the uncertainty surrounding the escalating COVID-19 cases means that postponing the event date is the best way we can help mitigate the impact of the virus for all in our community.
“As a small events team, we are truly passionate about our industry and have been working around the clock to secure the best possible new dates for GABF Geelong. We are also excited to announce that Art vs Science and The Badloves have been confirmed for these new dates.”
Regularly attracting a crowd of around 5000 for an afternoon of craft beer tasting and education, brewing demos, top local food and live music, with breweries attending from around the country, the festival has become an annual favourite amongst Geelong locals.
The festival was originally slated to go ahead in January 2021, the festival was sadly cancelled due to the restrictions on mass gatherings that were still in force in Victoria at the time following the state’s second wave. The festival revealed last year that it would go ahead on Saturday 15th January 2022, across two sessions from 11am-4pm and 5pm-10pm, in what will be presented as a COVID-safe event.
It’s shattering news for us all but sets up what will be a much-anticipated return in April.
Keep up with the latest here.
