World Beer Fest Richmond Cancelled

Daniel Bradford of All About Beer Magazine, sponsor of the World Beer Festival has announced that the Richmond event scheduled for June 18 in Richmond, VA has been canceled. In a letter sent out today Bradford writes:

Greetings:

It is with deepest regret that we must announce the cancellation of the World Beer Festival – Richmond 2011.

We enjoyed an excellent response from the Richmond beer community to last summer’s inaugural event. As we prepared for this year’s festival, we were excited about the public response, including both ticket pre-sales and volunteer recruitment. However, we have struggled with the regulatory requirements and trade practices in executing our festival model in Richmond.  Furthermore, internal company issues inhibited our ability to get ahead of these challenges and respond in a supportive partner fashion.

We concluded we could not create the type of beer tasting experience that would meet our standards, a reputation for quality beer tasting events that we have nurtured since 1996.  We would not have fulfilled our commitment to our customers or to the industry we have served for three decades.

We remain committed to the Richmond beer market – beer lovers, beer retailers, beer wholesalers and brewers – offering our assistance and support for any and all quality beer events that spread the word about good beer.

Again, we are deeply sorry about not being able to execute our event and any unfulfilled expectations that this may cause.  We are contacting all advanced sale ticket holders to offer refunds or exchanges for our World Beer Festival – Durham, World Beer Festival – Raleigh or World Beer Festival--Columbia.

Cheers,

Daniel Bradford
President

Readers will recall that the inaugural World Beer Festival - Richmond had to be postponed from it's original date back in 2009. The World Beer Festival events I've attended in North Carolina have been well-organized and a lot of fun. I hope the organizers can find a way to overcome the trials they face bringing the event to Virginia.