Fort Langley Festival to debut Langley’s new crop of breweries
In recent weeks, talk around BC craft beer circles has included a lot of talk about Langley. Take for instance the cover story for the current issue of our magazine, entitled “Hub In The Valley”, featuring Trading Post Brewing. Or a recent story on the BC Ale Trail website about the suburb’s beer boom. Set to have at least six breweries by 2020, Langley is on the cusp of becoming a dream brew-crawl destination in the same manner as Port Moody’s ‘Brewers Row’ and North Vancouver’s planned ‘Shipyards Brewery District’.
Up to now, there’s been no way to try the beers from all these up-and-coming breweries, since most of them are still under construction. Enter the Fort Langley Beer & Food Festival, brainchild of the people behind Trading Post (find out more about the event’s beginnings in our cover story), and the event where a number of Langley breweries will become debutantes at their first public beer fest.
With an expected crowd of 4000 merrymakers, the third annual FLBFF, to be held on May 18th just outside the Fort Langley National Historic Site, will be the biggest one yet. But it’s not just about Langley beer. For more about what’s in store for 2019, we turned to event organizer Hannah Brown of Trading Post and their new ‘spinoff’ business, Red Door Events.
Event Website | Shuttle | Get Tickets →
Q&A WITH HANNAH BROWN OF RED DOOR EVENTS
What’s Brewing: This year marks the third annual Fort Langley Beer & Food Festival. How has the reception been for this event, and how are ticket sales coming along?
Hannah Brown: The reception has been amazing! We started this festival 3 years ago because we wanted a place for the people in our community to get together to celebrate and enjoy what local breweries and food vendors have to offer. It’s been so incredible meeting new people and hearing how much fun they’ve had at the event in previous years.
We sold out the last two years a week before the festival, and tickets for this year are going even quicker! We’ve added more space and increased capacity to 4000 tickets so more people can attend, but we think this year will be another sellout!
WB: It looks like there are quite a few breweries attending. Are there any new ones this year?
HB: We’re going to have 29 breweries this year! A lot of them are returning from last year, but we’ve got a couple new ones joining us. This will be the first year for Taylight, Northpaw, Monkey 9, Loudmouth, and Big Ridge. Also, Langley’s new crop of breweries will all be there: Farm Country, Camp Brewing, Five Roads and Smugglers’ Trail CaskWorks.
WB: Any beers you’re looking forward to trying?
HB: Unfortunately I don’t get to enjoy any of the beer on the day, but there’s a lot of hype around the new Langley breweries as this will be the first time people can try their beers. They’ve been working on some really cool collab brews just for this fest!
WB: Where do you recommend heading for a bite to eat after the festivities?
HB: One of the best parts about the festival is its location. Fort Langley is such a beautiful little village with amazing food options. The festival ends at 6 PM, so you have time after to explore!
Trading Post’s Fort Langley Eatery is our go-to for its fresh food and great beer lineup. Beatnik’s, Rail & River, Saba, Mangia e Scappa and Fortitude are all great for a sit down meal, or you can grab a quick bite at Wendels, Little Donkey or Blacksmith Bakery.
WB: We see that there is a ticket option to book a Fort Langley oTENTik for the night. That looks pretty interesting! Will that be comfortable for a group of four to six people, and are they still available?
HB: The Fort Langley OtenTiks give you the full festival experience. It’s basically glamping right next to the festival site! They comfortably sleep six, right inside the walls of the Fort Langley National Historic Site. They’re fully equipped and have fire pits and BBQs for you to cook your own food! We have a couple more OtenTiks still available on our EventBrite page but they’re probably going to go quick!
WB: Do you have all the volunteers you need?
HB: We’ve got an incredible volunteer team in place, but can always use some extra hands! We throw our volunteers an afterparty as a thank-you where they can try all the beers from the festival and enjoy a meal together. We also give our volunteers a ticket to one of our upcoming festivals (more details on those to be announced!). For a full list of our volunteer perks and to sign up, you can head over to www.fortlangley.beer/volunteers
WB: Thanks to the popularity of this event, the people behind Trading Post and FLBFF have created a new events management company, Red Door Events. How busy are things these days at Red Door?
HB: Things are very busy! We’ve had so much fun putting on the festival and smaller events at Trading Post’s locations, and there’s a need for them out here in the Fraser Valley. So now we have a couple more fun festivals and events in the works. We’ll be announcing our next big one on May 6th, so stay tuned for more details!
Fort Langley Beer & Food Festival
Saturday, May 18, 2019
12:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Fort Langley National Historic Site
23433 Mavis Ave, Langley BC V1M 2R5
Tickets: $35+ Get Tickets →
SkyTrain Shuttle
Coming in from Vancouver? BC Brewery Tours runs a shuttle from Skytrain’s King George Station to to get you there and back safely. More information, or book a seat →
More Langley Coverage!
Five Roads Brewing Co. becomes newest Langley brewery to open its doors
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