Craft beer festival cancelled in downtown Whitby just two days before the event

The off-again, on-again Whitby Beer Fest 2024 is off, with the news of the cancellation coming just two days before it was set to take over Celebration Square in downtown Whitby.

The popular event had been run by the Downtown Whitby BIA until this year, when the organization announced in April the festival was not “family friendly” enough and didn’t bring in sufficient foot traffic for downtown businesses and pulled the plug.

Three months later the Whitby Chamber of Commerce said they would take it on and lined up a dozen breweries, including all five in Whitby, for a party at Celebration Square September 13-15.

“Whitby Beer Fest has a rich history, starting as a small event for beer lovers back in 2018 and growing into an attraction for both locals and visitors from the surrounding area,” the Town wrote in a statement in July. “We are thrilled to see this event return to our community and can’t wait to welcome everyone to join in and support local.”

Wednesday brought the news the event had been cancelled only days before it was scheduled to take place.

As of this writing there has been no response from the Chamber, which just underwent some executive changes, bringing in Karey Anne Large from Scugog’s chamber as the new executive director, and the news was actually broken by Whitby’s Town Brewery.

“Unfortunately, due to circumstances out of our control, the Whitby Chamber of Commerce has decided to not move forward with the Whitby Beer Fest at this time. Although we were helping out to try and make the event a success, we were not the organizers and unfortunately the powers that be decided to pull the plug.”

“We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this has caused, and we are just as disappointed as anyone that it’s not happening.”

The Whitby DBIA, while also “disappointed” the beer festival was not going ahead, was quick to assure craft beer lovers the decision was not theirs, either..

“It’s important to clarify that the Whitby Chamber of Commerce, a separate organization from the DWBIA, took on the responsibility of organizing Beerfest in 2024,” said Executive Director Shawna Fergus. “The decision to cancel the upcoming event was made by the current organizers and is not related to the DWBIA or the businesses and services we represent.”

Oshawa held its own craft beer festival in June at Children’s Arena, west of downtown, and had scheduled the fall version of the Durham Craft Beer Festival for October 5 at the arena but made the decision not to proceed several weeks ago.

Next year’s festivals are still in the works and festival owner Jeff Davis said he has “confirmed dates” with the City for events in May and October of 2025.