CLOVERDALE — The two-day inaugural beer, wine and spirits festival – The Grape & The Grain – which was set to take place next weekend (May 28-29), has been postponed due to low tickets.

The festival, which is devoted to wine, beer and spirits, was scheduled to be held at the outdoor venue known as Bill Reid Millennium Amphitheatre, at Cloverdale Fairgrounds.

Paulette Garneau, who co-produces the festival, and her fellow event planners with Phoenix Productions and which had hoped to attract 10,000 people to the festival with a wide selection of adult beverages, food and live music, said the organizers made the difficult decision to postpone it Wednesday morning as they wanted the results to be positive for the attendees.

“It’s a chance for people to enjoy a nice afternoon out with some wine, music and good food, and we’re setting up a village area with other vendors, too,” Garneau told the Now. “We’re hoping for about 30 different beer samplings, about 40 wines and another 20 samplings of spirits, so that’s about 100 different types of alcohol to taste,” Garneau told The Surrey Now Newspaper.

The aim is to make The Grape & The Grain an annual event.

“We’re trying to highlight the spirits, mainly,” Garneau explained. “There are a great deal of new distillers in B.C. and a lot of them are small, so we’re highlighting a lot of what’s being done locally, and craft beers and wineries, too.

Festival admission is $55 for the Saturday, $45 for Sunday, $75 for a weekend pass and $95 for a Sunday brunch.

SUBMITTED PHOTO

The team organizing an inaugural festival in Cloverdale called The Grape & The Grain includes (from left to right) Lori Potts,

Paulette Garneau, Amy Jones, Ron Sz, Aline Fricot and Karran Finlay.  

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For attendees, the festival will employ a cashless pay system with the use of so-called RFID wristbands (radio-frequency identification). Upon entering the festival site, ticketholders will be given one of the Fitbit-like wristbands pre-loaded with $20 to spend.

Musicians confirmed to perform at the festival include JP Maurice, Dominique Fricot, Larry Edward, Sadie Campbell and Mai Tai Friday. Charity partners for the event are BC Kidney Foundation and Operation Red Nose, Garneau said.