The Brewers Association (BA) will require attendees of its 2022 events to provide proof of vaccination for COVID-19 and will not accept negative test results as a substitute.
“All events and competitions will have this requirement,” BA marketing and communications director Ann Obenchain told Brewbound. “There will be no negative test option.”
UPDATE (Monday, Nov. 8, 11:55 a.m. ET): After telling Brewbound that the BA would not offer a negative test option on Sunday evening, Obenchain said on Monday that the negative test option was still under discussion.
The BA’s four signature events include:
- Craft Brewers Conference & BrewExpo America (CBC), May 2-5, 2022, in Minneapolis, Minnesota;
- SAVOR: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience, June 24, 2022, in Washington, D.C.;
- HomebrewCon, June 23-25, 2022, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania;
- And the Great American Beer Festival, October 6-8, 2022, in Denver, Colorado.
“The verification process will vary depending on the ticketing or registration partner associated with each event,” Obenchain said, adding that some events’ ticketing partners may require proof of vaccination to be uploaded at time of purchase.
On-site verification systems have not been confirmed yet. The news was first reported in Craft Beer and Brewing’s Beer Industry Guide.
Other trade organizations — the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) and the Beer Institute (BI) — required attendees to provide proof of vaccination or negative test results at their events this fall.
Of the BA’s annual events, only CBC was hosted in person in its traditional form in 2021. While proof of vaccination was not required, social distancing and other health and safety protocols were in place. Amid a post-holiday surge in COVID-19 cases in early 2021, the BA announced in January that it had pushed the conference from its original late March date in San Diego to September in Denver.
In 2020, the BA was forced to cancel the in-person versions of all four of its signature events, but pivoted quickly to host virtual versions of CBC and HomebrewCon. The BA hosted the competition portion of GABF in both 2020 and 2021, but the in-person festival was canceled both years due to health concerns. Instead, breweries participated in a month-long passport program for consumers coordinated by the BA.
Prior to the pandemic, events — which include ticket sales, sponsorships and advertising sales — were the BA’s largest revenue source, totaling $16,173,153 in 2019, according to the organization’s stewardship report. In 2020, event revenue declined 89.5%, to $1,702,215. Advertising and sponsorship revenue totaled $1,982,023 in 2020, a 57.3% decline compared to the $4,648,272 generated in 2019.
A nearly 90% decline of its largest revenue source forced the BA to eliminate the jobs of nearly 40% of its staff in two separate layoffs in 2020. The cuts affected notable BA employees such as former craft beer program director Julia Herz, state brewers guilds manager Acacia Coast, American Homebrewers Association director Gary Glass and event director Kathryn Porter Drapeau.