CREDIT: PATERSON MONDAY
The Arts and Draughts beer-tasting event will be held on October 8 at The Grand Theatre from 7 to 10 p.m. (From Left to Right: Jeremy Smith, Autumn Coppaway, Tansy Chau, Natalie Kearns, Paul Fujimoto-Pihl.)

The Grand Theatre will be hosting its third annual Arts and Draughts beer-tasting event on October 8.

The event will feature 11 craft microbreweries from the area, such as London’s Forked River Brewing Company, Barrie’s Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery and Bracebridge’s Muskoka Brewery.

“It’s a nice, really open festival,” said Forked River’s David Reed, who was at the event last year.

Video game developers from the area will also be at the event, showcasing demos of their current and upcoming games.

“We like to have an arts component to the event,” said Lia Karidas, the development co-ordinator at the theatre.

She says that they’ve had live painting performances and art installations in addition to the music in the past.

“This year, we thought we would try something different,” she said.

She says the demographic that attended the previous Arts and Draughts events is one that enjoys video games.

“So, we thought we would offer them an opportunity to enjoy that alongside their beer and alongside listening to the music as a way to flesh out the experience and make it more fun,” she said.

The event will also feature music from Ellie and The Gents, The B.A. Baracus Band and Montana Rose.

The Arts and Draughts event started in 2012. At the time, one of the most popular events at The Grand Theatre was the Taste: Scotch and Chocolate event.

“We just really liked the idea of letting people try a beverage and really learn about it and think about it and taste the nuances and the differences between the ones offered by different producers,” she said. “Beer was at the time becoming something very, very popular, especially craft beer.”

Three years later, it’s become one of the theatre’s most successful fundraisers in terms of the number of people that attend, Karidas said.

“It’s a lot of fun.”

You can buy tickets for $40 at grandtheatre.com. Proceeds go to helping fund programming for The Grand Theatre.