THUNDER BAY — The beers are back in town.
The city’s annual BrewHa festival, this year taken over by the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce, should see between 2,500 and 3,000 patrons make their way through the waterfront on Friday and Saturday evening, sampling the best local and regional breweries have to offer.
There will also be wine and seltzer tastings available, for those on the hunt from something other than a tasty cold brew.
Nancy Milani, the Chamber’s director of special events, said the festival is a great chance to celebrate all things Northwestern Ontario.
“This is a great opportunity for people to come and see our craft brewers that are local and regional. The brewers that are here on site have special brews that are just coming out for this weekend. You won’t see these in the LCBO or the Beer Store,” Milani said.
“You won’t see them in their establishments afterward.”
In addition to the beer companies, there will also be 10 food vendors on site and a marketplace with other vendors.
There will also be the Home Hardware Lager Lounge, a great spot to sit and watch all the musicians that will be performing at the two-day festival, which runs from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
“We have a great lineup, pretty much covering all the genres, everything from jazz and blues to country to country-rock to hard rock,” Milani said.
The music lineup includes Jen Metcalfe, Scotch & Water, the Scott Van Teeffelen Band and Headrush on Friday night and Mood Indigo, Wayne Faulconer C.G.P, Rage and Ruin and Pretty Ugly on Saturday night.
A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Our Kids Count.
Milani said tickets are still available for both nights, but noted they are only available online, at www.brewhafestival.com, and must be purchased prior to entering the festival site.
Formerly run by a private-sector group, Milani said the Chamber took over the event this year as a way to help promote local businesses hard hit by the pandemic and still recovering from two years of lost revenues.
“We took this event over from the private sector mainly because of what happened during COVID. The hospitality industry, the restaurant industry, the craft beer industry, everybody was suffering lots. We thought this was a great opportunity to help our members, of which we have a lot of our membership from that sector,” Milani said.
