Surprising news this morning out of the Brewers Association—or perhaps not so surprising, all things considered—is the cancellation of the Great American Beer Festival this year due to COVID-19. Brewbound broke the news this morning:

For the first time in the festival’s nearly 40-year history, the Brewers Association (BA) has canceled the 2020 edition of Great American Beer Festival, which was slated to take place September 24-26, and will instead move the event “to an immersive online experience” from October 16-17.

“This marks the first cancellation of its kind for GABF, and while we are disappointed to not be gathering in Denver this fall, the health and safety of our attendees, brewers, volunteers, judges, and employees is and always has been our top priority,” the BA wrote in an email Thursday morning. “As the world is still greatly affected by the spread of COVID-19 and will continue to be affected for the foreseeable future, we must stay true to our priorities and pursue other ways to host GABF.”

GABF is the BA’s largest annual consumer-facing event, drawing 60,000 beer drinkers to the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. The festival includes a beer competition, which will go forward with the award winners announced during a live-streamed ceremony on October 16. Competition registration opens for breweries on June 9, and the BA said it anticipates more than 7,000 entries for the competition.

On Wednesday, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis issued an executive order declaring that the Colorado Convention Center serve as an alternate care site for COVID-19 patients. Although the order is slated to expire 30 days from its signing, the BA wrote in its email to members that it renders the site “infeasible.”

Here’s the full press release from the Brewers Association.

In light of the pandemic, this was to be expected, especially for such a large gathering. Here in Oregon, most of the major beer festivals have been canceled already, including the Oregon Brewers Festival in July and the Bend Brewfest in August. And other big events, like the Craft Brewers Conference, HomebrewCon, and SAVOR, were all canceled, some moving to an online or virtual format. And of course don’t forget—Munich Oktoberfest was canceled!

The OBF announcement was made on May 4, and organizers note that it will return July 28–31, 2021. The Bend Brewfest announced its cancellation a week ago:

With heavy hearts, Bend Brewfest has made the decision to cancel its 2020 event due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation. The decision was not an easy one, as this annual event has a great impact on craft beer fans, regional breweries, local non-profits and the Bend community alike. However, the health and safety of guests and employees remains the top priority of Bend Brewfest. All brewers whose applications were accepted for the 2020 event will have an automatic spot at next year’s event.

Will this affect how beer festivals will operate, moving forward? What do we suppose brewfests will look like in 2021 and beyond?