It was a dream to get to go to New Zealand's best beer festival, and I made it happen in 2024. Watching social media of past events, and seeing how thoughtful and fun it looked, over a typical commercial drunkfest, made me want to experience it. It's the best beer festival I've ever gone to and hope to make it back again soon! It was held over two days, two sessions each (a Friday and Saturday). Thursday night I also got to attend the trade show and preview some beers, breweries, and meet people that would be at the festival. It was all held in Sky Stadium in Wellington. The festival itself was so well planned it never once felt overwhelming: easy entry with efficient security, quick ticket scan and cup pickup, and organized ring of breweries inside (it was cold that weekend), with enough space in between to make it always feel healthy and open. Water stands and food were also interspersed nicely. Due to local laws, you had to pay for each beer, which was done all electronically. No guesswork nor change, just tap and go. It featured beers mostly from around New Zealand, but also had a great selection of Sunshine Coast Australia breweries, plus this year's featured country Germany. Ticket prices plus drink prices added up, but was still reasonable for the quality and fun time. I also met so many genuinely friendly people in and around the festival. If you love beer and are able to go, this one is worth the trip. read more

See all

Beervana attracts craft beer lovers from all over New Zealand and beyond. This epic festival is now held in the Westpac stadium corridors. This means there is a lot of space for impressive, large stalls and entire food trucks and beer trucks to drive in. But that also means the concrete venue is totally lacking in atmosphere and soul. The craft beer is good quality and both the brewers and punters are passionate and beardy. Beervana now uses scannable wristbands pre-loaded with money to pay for all of the samples. A benefit to this is that you can get the money left on your wristband back at the end, so you don't have to try to calculate exactly how much you think you will spend in a session. A big surprise for me was the hefty price tag. The ticket prices were very high compared to other beer and spirit festival I've attended. Also, there was essentially nothing included with the ticket, other than entry. There were no initial tasting tokens and as for the "entertainment," there was one small stage that wasn't visible from a majority of the festival. The performers I saw were tolerable, but certainly didn't come close to justifying the ticket price. I'm cool with a higher cost of admission if there are free samples, tasting tokens included, or far more value for money with extras & entertainment. If I'm paying for all of my samples with no added extras, that's okay too, but I would expect a low entrance fee. It makes me wonder if some locals would be better off just spending what they would have on the entrance fee on pints at one of quality craft beer bars around town instead? There's a great buzz at Beervana and in the craft beer bars around Wellington during the festival. I had an excellent time and some fond memories from the event (along with a few hazy ones)! Beervana is both pricy and a lot of fun. read more

See all