While Mother Nature put a damper on the first day of Beau’s Brewing Co.’s 10th annual Oktoberfest event, Sept. 21-22 in Vankleek Hill, Ontario, the second day still saw many visitors come out to the small town to indulge in the festival. Beau’s Oktoberfest is the signature fundraising event for the brewery and this year’s two days saw more than 17,000 people attend and $94,323 raised for various local charities. That brought the 10-year fundraising total to $711,212. The festival also featured some big musical names such as: Sloan, Weaves, Fred Penner and The Kingpins.

Just days before the event, we had the chance to chat with Beau’s co-founder Steve Beauchesne, who talked about what the milestone event meant. “Ten years of Oktoberfest really speaks to the resiliency of the idea. When we first came up with it, we wondered if there would be enough people who wanted this type of event. It turns out the answer was yes. It has been a decade of fundraising for great causes. It really is an amazing concept: throw a party and do good for the community.”

The fundraising aspect has always been an important one to Beau’s. Beauchesne remembers that it was the main purpose for putting on the event in the first place. The brewery had set an annual fundraising goal and with their events, they were projecting to come up short, which meant they wouldn’t be able to do as much as they wanted. “Someone said ‘why don’t we do an Oktoberfest?’ We had talked about it before but it seemed like the best way to meet our goal. I think the most exciting thing is that yes, we put the festival on, but it is run by the charities we partner with. The collaborative effort makes it special. All of the groups are passionate about doing it and the level of excitement among them is great.”

The shear size of the event is another aspect that has added to its impressiveness. “The first year we thought maybe 500-1,000 people would attend,” said Beauchesne. “We had to shut the gate when we reached 5,000! It made us realize we had something big on our hands.”

Now the festival plans for 20,000 over the course of the two days. That is more than 10 times the size of the town’s population (1,742 as of the 2016 Canadian census).

Knowing that they can attract the large numbers has allowed Beau’s to grow the festival year after year. It features recognizable musical acts, numerous games and activities, food vendors, and of course beer.

While you will find the full slate of Beau’s beer at the festival, they have also opened their doors and invited numerous guest taps for patrons to try out. It is something that the festival has done for many years and for Beauchesne, vice-chair of the Ontario Craft Brewers Association, an opportunity to grow the craft beer community.

“It all started by working with a group from Cask Days, (a beer festival in Toronto) as a satellite of that festival,” said Beauchesne. “We take pride in supporting our craft beer brethren and thought a great way to do it would be to have them at the festival. We have brought in a lot of cool stuff from all over. Lots of Ontario, Quebec and now and again abroad as well. It is a great way to showcase the best of craft beer.”

Even though this year’s festival was cut short by weather, it still turned out to be a success. And Beauchesne and Beau’s have no plans of stopping. “We really love what we are doing and there isn’t much we want to change. We want to continue to offer great food, music and of course beer. The event is very family friendly, which makes us proud. At this point, we just want to make sure we keep the experience special for everyone.”

Cheers!

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Photos courtesy of Beau’s Brewing Co.