The Independent Brewers Association (IBA) has announced it is cancelling BrewCon 2021 because of current COVID-19 outbreaks, border restrictions and the fact the planned venue is now being exclusively used by the NRL.
In a letter to members IBA CEO Kylie Lethbridge said the association had made the difficult decision to cancel rather than reschedule BrewCon, but that the Independent Beer Awards would still be taking place.
“The ongoing risk associated with running such a large event until situation with the pandemic changes means we will not be rescheduling the 2021 event, therefore next BrewCon will be held in Queensland in August/September 2022,” Lethbridge said.
“The good news is we are pushing on with the Independent Beer Awards (the Indies) this year. You’ll remember we successfully delivered the ceremony online in 2020 so now we are working toward a bigger and better version for mid-October this year, including official state parties once again.”
She added: “I know this isn’t the news that you wanted to hear, nor what I wanted to deliver, but in this ever-changing environment it is incumbent on us to make sensible decisions to ensure we can still deliver a broad range of services to our members. There’s a lot happening now, which I’ll be talking more about in the very future week so it’s not all bad news.
“I’d like to take the opportunity to thank our members and sponsors for your continued support, encouragement, and belief in your industry association, it is much appreciated by the IBA Board and the Team.”
The IBA said all deposits paid will be refunded, outstanding invoices will be voided and tickets purchased for BrewCon and the Indies Ceremony will be refunded.