The New Zealand Beer Festival was held annually. In 2014 it was at The Cloud on Auckland's Queens Wharf.

A long-running New Zealand craft beer festival has been cancelled after being dealt a blow by alcohol regulations.

The annual New Zealand Beer Festival, which has been operating since 2007, was supposed to run at The Cloud on Queen's Wharf on March 19 featuring beers from craft breweries, 22 food vendors and more than 12,000 people.

New Zealand band The Feelers and DJs Nice' n 'Urlich had also been booked.

However, the event has been cancelled with refunds being sent to ticket holders' credit cards and bank accounts, and breweries and vendors being reimbursed over the coming week.

Organiser Andrew Somervell said a new regulatory environment in 2014 meant it was handed "arduous" licensing restrictions.

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In 2014 the council drafted a tough local alcohol policy putting restrictions on the sale of beer stronger than 6 per cent and banning events with a special liquor licence from selling strong beer.

The day before the 2014 New Zealand Beer Festival organisers were told they would be required to have smaller pours, higher prices and lower alcohol beers, which resulted in longer queues.

"You couldn't buy a couple of beers for you and your mates so everyone had to queue up," Somervell said.

In 2015 the council adopted a new local alcohol policy which removed tough proposals affecting craft beer.

Organisers decided not to run the event in 2015.

Auckland Council's licensing and compliance services general manager Grant Barnes said the 2013 event concerned police and the council because it had high levels of intoxication and disorder including fighting.

When it came time for the promoter to apply for a special alcohol licence for the 2014 event a hearing was held by an independent body - the Auckland district licensing committee.

The chair of the panel granted a special licence for the event to go ahead in 2014 but only under strict conditions including restricting pour size.



"They made a decision based on the evidence that they'd received from the promoter the council and the police," Barnes said.

Somervell and his business partner David Elmsly had another crack at running the event in 2016, but after 2014 customers were hesitant about attending the festival until they were satisfied it was worth it, he said.

Somervell would not say how many tickets had been sold, but had the event gone ahead he reckoned it would have broken even.

However, he wasn't willing to take the risk.

"We are not the kind of guys to leave it until the last day and pull the pin.

"There's a lot of money that trades hands during a big event and if you don't get it right it can end in tears."

Tickets were $29, with 165ml beer pours from $3 and 250ml pours from $5.

Somervell said the event had a good brand with a strong following and he hoped someone from the craft beer industry would help him run it in the future.

It would need to be reformatted as a smaller more expensive event, he said.