A Wellington reader made the trip down south last Friday to attend the festival and filed this report.
Arrival experience: The festival is held each year at Forsyth Barr Stadium in the centre of Dunedin. It was an easy 10 minute walk through the grounds of the university from my central city motel. There were no queues to enter the Stadium when I arrived. The only hiccup was the QR code on my phone disappeared just before it was going to be scanned at the entry gate. It came back a few minutes later, while I was trying to remember the password for my Moshtix account.
Ticket type: VIP Experience. This cost me $220, and included hop the queue entry, 3 drinks, “complimentary catering” which turned out to be 2 small tacos, a separate area near the main stage with its own bar and seating, and not much else. A GA ticket, which most people had, cost $70.
The Crowd: Being held in a university city I expected there to be lots of students at the festival. In fact most of the festival goers were from workplaces, and a lot of them dressed up for the festival in matching Hawaiian shirts. A total of 5,500 people made it along to the Friday session I attended, and the next day’s session was a sell out with 6,300 festival goers. Although billed as the biggest beer festival in the South Island, it didn’t seem crowded. All the festival goers on the Friday were spread out over the length of the field at the stadium, and there was a good vibe. Three police officers had little to do other than wandering around the field, chatting to people they knew at the festival.
The Beers: there were over 150 beers to try, from juicy hazies and zesty sours to crisp lagers and special festival releases.
I got to meet some of the legends behind the brews – including Richard from Emersons, Oscar from Brew Moon, Mario from Double Vision, Rael from Behemoth, and Andi from Beer Baroness. And I tried tasting sized glasses of beer from various stalls. What surprised me was the number of breweries that had made the trip down to Dunedin from various parts of Aotearoa, including quite a few from the North Island.
As there was no event app to vote for your favourite beer I asked stall holders what were the crowd favourites at their stalls. Here are the results from my informal survey:
Double Vision Facehugger, a tropical smoothie sour [photo 8]
Beer Baroness Down the Rabbit Hole, a salted caramel cheesecake stout [photo 9]
Brew Moon Bramble Ramble, a berry sour
Behemoth Haze Juice, a hazy IPA
Boneface Cold Shoulder Lager
Panhead all of their batch brews
And at the Feldspar VIP bar it was Urbanaut Del Mar Pink Grapefruit Hazy IPA
My personal favourite was Near Miss, a collaboration between Emersons and Double Vision. [photo 13] This brilliant red IPA beer has the throttle turned up to 8.2% abv to maximise the flavour. Shame it is a limited release.
The Food: There was a good range of food trucks and eateries, serving up typical festival fare – from burgers and spicy wieners to savoury dumplings and sweet treats. My personal favourite was the Te Kouma oysters – served up fresh with a range of sauces to choose from. They went down nicely with my McLeods Pale Ale. [photo 14]
The Entertainment: There was an extensive line-up of international and local acts, including Bootleg Rascal from Australia, Gin Wigmore, and Tiki Taane.
The best bit: Being part of a culinary tasting experience. I was lucky to score a ticket as one of 30 people randomly chosen from the crowd. We went into the players tunnel under the main stand, through the Highlanders changing room with its mood lighting, and then into a function room where we were served gourmet ice creams. The festival offers the widest range of experiences compared to all the other festivals I have been to in NZ. Amongst other things there were master classes, tasting room sessions, a silent disco, and Radio Hauraki’s Big Show broadcasting live [photo 18].
The worst bit: Just before the culinary tasting experience started we were told there had been an accident and most of the food had ended up on the floor. So instead of a 45-minute experience tasting various dishes, we spent a few minutes eating the gourmet ice creams which seemed to escape the accident, or maybe the 5 second rule was used as the ice creams were served upside down!
Overall: It was a very enjoyable beer festival. They organisers have hit on a very successful formula with a big range of top beers and other drinks, lots of great food stalls, and various different experiences to make it a fun day out. No wonder they had almost 12,000 punters over the 2 days. In comparison, Beervana in 2025 had about the same number of punters – but at 4 sessions over 2 days and Wellington is a much bigger region. For me the VIP ticket was not great value for money, and next time I go I’ll buy the GA ticket, and put the savings towards some top class food and drink.