My Experience at the 2025 Toronto Festival of Beer

Have you ever been to the Toronto Festival of Beer? It’s a craft beer tasting event which was founded in Fort York in 1996, and moved to the C.N.E. fairgrounds ten years ago. Many attendees are loyal patrons, returning annually, but this was my first visit, and so I didn’t know what to expect. On Saturday the 26th of July 2025, I went with friends and found a lively, alcohol-themed attraction in a cool historic building.

Toronto Festival of Beer – TFoB or #Beerfest has been held in Bandshell Park for ten years, but this year it moved a hundred meters north to the Toronto Event Center at 15 Saskatchewan Rd. which is the domed building opposite Medieval Times at the very bottom of Dufferin Street in the C.N.E. fairgrounds.

Physically this was a small move, but logistically it was epic for the organizers. The forced-move caused havoc because administrators had to reconfigure all their inputs with regards to print marketing, booth assignments, sizing and pricing, emergency protocols, security requirements and audio equipment for the performances. For the first time ever, the festival had an indoors section and rock bands played under the glass dome and not under the arch in the open air bandshell.

The Toronto Event Centre is accessible by public transport and is wheelchair-friendly. There is parking, despite the comments on Facebook and Reddit warning people there’s no parking. There are in fact three or more public parking lots within a five minutes walk, and so I don’t know why anyone with a car couldn’t park there. We rode our bicycles which is always a safe bet when attending a licensed event, although I went the whole day without seeing a policeman. One friend raised the possibility of police R.I.D.E. checks later in the evening. These occur infrequently on British Columbia Dr. which is directly west of the venue and runs between Liberty Grand and Medieval Times to access Lakeshore Blvd. and the Gardiner Expressway.

The event was restricted to adults over the age of 19 with ID checks at the door. Security was also checking bags, and they were rushing and not doing a very good job in my opinion. At the end of a twenty minute wait in line to enter the venue, I was a little disappointed to find there were only two bag checking stations and four guards in total with a supervisor in reserve. If there’d been three such processing centers, my wait would have been reduced to twelve minutes or less. Also, let it be known, I had three pieces of metal cutlery in my knapsack. The culinary items are not dangerous, but they should have been discovered. I think it’s significant they escaped detection, and it’s because the security staff were operationally overwhelmed.

I understood later that two stations at the entrance was indeed optimal for the rest of the day, and it just felt inadequate for the brief time I was stuck in line (at 3pm). In hindsight, it was smart for the organizers to stagger opening hours for different level ticket holders. On Saturday, the day we visited, the doors opened earlier for VIPs, sometimes referred to as Hoptimized ticket holders. We entered with the crush holding general admission tickets two hours later.

Once inside we were confused, and this is my only other criticism of the event’s organization; it took us a while to figure out how to buy a beer. We are smart adults who didn’t immediately grasp the rigmarole. We needed to buy tokens, but didn’t know how to do that, or where to buy them. It was only after traipsing around with empty glasses that a vendor was kind enough to point out a yellow-shirted staff member who directed us to a token-filling station. The female attendees in the photo below, photographed by me just inside the main entrance holding their empty mugs, have no idea how to buy a beer.

The festival featured a incalculable amount of different beers from more than a hundred local, national, and international brewers, representing a broad range of styles. It would be hard to take a complete inventory because of the variations and mixes and so forth. But suffice to say there was something for every beer enthusiast, and I could explore craft innovators or stick to my old favourites. I purchased a pale ale from a Caribbean brewer, and then a fruity mix which really wasn’t beer at all but some juice infused vodka distillate. This is a great place for alternative beverage makers to try and capture new enthusiasts.

Toronto Festival of Beer employs reusable sampling tokens and plastic mugs, instead of paper chips and cups, with an eye on reducing waste. Additionally, they have put a beer bottle drive into effect which makes it easier for vendors to recycle glass bottles and cans. These actions dramatically lower the festival’s environmental impact.

The token system is how you buy beers; two tokens for half a cup and four tokens for a full mug. The clear plastic vessel and designated receptacle was issued upon entry and is a keepsake. But it only holds approximately 400mls of liquid and is smaller than what is regularly served in Ontario bars and restaurants. I wonder what would happen if you brought your own full sized clear plastic mug?

In addition to the vast beverage selection, TFOB has food vendors in a special section they call Potluck. This is where you get your burgers, rib sandwiches and wood oven fired pizzas. I was expecting the same foods you find at the C.N.E., but instead there was more sophisticated fare like sushi, spring rolls, falafels, tacos and even a busy fish & chips stand.

It was eighty degrees that afternoon, which is good weather for patios in Toronto and an outdoor beer tasting event on the lakeshore, but there was no direct sun to blaze down on everyone and double beverage sales. It was overcast and muggy, and then it rained, a warm rain which somehow made the air even hotter. People were good and sweaty by the time Hollerado came on stage around 9pm. The Ottawa-based musicians were the headline act following The Brokes, a Strokes cover band who opened at 7:30.

Instagram posts detail the band’s excitement about playing new music and revisiting old songs, with one audience member commenting on how the band changed the key of their song, Americanama to better suit the room’s acoustics. Hollerado’s performance was likely part of their return to playing live, as they mentioned rehearsing new material and old songs recently. On stage, the singer discussed an incident involving Sam Roberts Band and some graffiti on their tour bus in a playful, self-deprecating way.

Facilities included free water stations (to encourage hydration), designated smoking areas with clear policies. Food and keepsakes could be purchased with cash or by using debit or credit cards. I didn’t see a bank machine anywhere.

Overall, attending TFoB at the Toronto Event Centre was a good decision. It’s a great place for people watching, sampling diverse beers, and eating great food while enjoying lively homegrown music.