Beer lovers, here is something that’s about to make your Monday even more glum – the 5th installation of the Better Beer Festival featuring 250 craft beers from 43 breweries worldwide has been officially cancelled, as stated on the event’s official Facebook page.
The Kuala Lumpur City Hall (or DBKL) confirmed that it has rejected the organisers’ application to hold the event, which would have been Malaysia’s largest craft beer festival. In a statement on Monday, DBKL corporate communications director Khalid Zakaria said that it received the organiser’s application to host the event on Aug 28 but decided to reject the application.
“The application for the activity at the place, time and date was not approved. If the organiser goes ahead with the event, DBKL can take action,” he said. The DBKL announcement came a week after PAS central committee member Dr Riduan Mohd Nor spoke out against the event, calling it a “pesta maksiat” (vice party) and claiming that it would turn Kuala Lumpur into the “largest vice centre in Asia”.
“It is with disappointment that we, the organisers of The Better Beer Festival 2017, would like to announce that the festival, slated to be held on Oct 6 and 7, will not be proceeding as scheduled,” said festival organiser MyBeer, a craft beer distributor.
“At our meeting with DBKL officials, we were instructed to cancel our event as there are issues with the licensing. We were further informed that the decision was made due to the political sensitivity surrounding the event. We regret any inconvenience caused to our patrons, partners and sponsors, and thank you for your unwavering support over the last week,” the statement read.
The first Better Beer Festival was in 2012, held at Taps Beer Bar in Changkat Bukit Bintang, which drew about 200 people to the event. Last year’s festival drew over 3,500 craft beer lovers to Publika Shopping Gallery. This year, MyBeer was expecting for aboout 6,000 people to show up for the festival.
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