Hops and Holešovice: Prague Beer Fest returns to offer international selection of brews
Prague Beer Fest is returning for another year, running from midday on Friday 11th of April to midnight on Saturday 12th. Danny Bate spoke to Miroslav Brada from the team behind the festival, to find out what’s new this year and how the international celebration of beer works.
This will be the seventh annual Prague Beer Fest. What's different this year?
“We’ve been organising this festival for seven years, with an interruption in the Covid era. Now for the fourth time it’s in the Holešovice Market (Holešovicka Tržnice). It’s a huge international event. We have many guests from international breweries.
“A new thing this year is that we have three breweries from the Basque region and Spain, which is quite exotic for us. We also have again an offer of American beers, which we transport and import ourselves from the USA.”
Let’s say that someone turns up to the Holešovice Market. How does it work? And what can they expect at the beer festival?
“It works perfectly, because Holešovice Tržnice has quite good connections and it’s near the city centre. We get many international visitors. So it's easy to reach and we have a lot of space, because our visitors have to feel comfortable when they're tasting the different beers.
And do you pay for each beer that you sample? How does it work in terms of money?
“In terms of money, we have the cashless system, NFC Tron. People have to buy a ticket, which comes with a festival glass. Then they buy beer with a chip, which they can fill up with money. It's an independent system, and they pay for each beer.”
And I don't know about you, but when I'm having some beer, I often get quite hungry. Are you supplying some tasty food as well?
“Of course. Next to the Hall 13 where the breweries are located, outside there is the street food zone with six or seven food trucks. This will cover Czech-style food, exotic food, vegetarian food. If the whole family comes and only one of them drinks beer, the rest can stay in the street food zone where they have wine, prosecco, lemonade, coffee and lots of other things available.”
Finally, what would you say is the goal of the Prague Beer Fest?
“In Europe there are many festivals, big, really international ones that influence others. We would like to put our festival on the map of Europe as a good event to visit. I think we are successful in this. So, our ambition is to be one of the best craft-beer festivals in Europe right now.”
