Edmonton craft breweries invited to bid on supplying events, concerts, K-Days
Big events in Alberta's capital could soon get a whole lot “craftier" now that Edmonton's tourism body is allowing small breweries to bid on its alcohol contract.
It’s an effort to add more local flavour to concerts and celebrations like K-Days.
Alley Kat is one of a handful of local breweries bidding for a slice of Explore Edmonton's new alcohol deal.
"It’d be a pretty big thing just because most venues of this size you see typically aren’t local, they aren’t craft," owner Cameron French told CTV News Edmonton.
Explore Edmonton operates the convention centre downtown and the Expo Centre near the shuttered Coliseum, which both frequently host concerts and major events, including K-Days and Farm Fair.
Breweries can bid to supply as many venues or events as they like, provided they can pump out enough beer.
"Just in the convention centre, we’re looking at 250,000 meals served a year. So you’re into hundreds of thousands, millions of cans of beer basically, is one example," said Dan St. Pierre with Explore Edmonton.
Traditionally, multi-national brewers like Molson or Labatt were the only ones who could make enough beer to meet the demand in major venues.
St. Pierre said the fact that multiple local craft breweries have bid on big volumes shows how successful the industry has become, something his tourism body wants to promote.
"We can honour our mandate, which in large part is about elevating local products and elevating Edmonton flavour into our facilities, into the marketing work that we do," he said.
Bidding on the contract is now closed. Explore Edmonton plans to announce the winning breweries in the next month or so.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Liberal MP says she's leaving politics over disrespectful dialogue, threats, misogyny
Liberal MP Pam Damoff says she won't run again in the next federal election, saying she has experienced misogyny, disrespectful dialogue in politics and threats to her life.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.