Re: "Beer festival plagued by changing rules," Sept. 13.
Perhaps before we join the columnist and the organizers of the hyperbolically titled Great Canadian Beer Festival over perceived changes in liquor control branch treatment, we should look at how the festival itself has failed to live up to its own promises.
At the festival's inception 20 years ago, the organizers acknowledged that having an athletic park full of beer enthusiasts would be a demand on nearby neighbours. One of the nearest of those neighbours is Anawim House, which serves both as a home for seven men who are ready for life off the street and as a day home for up to another 50 men and women who need a warm meal, a friendly place to rest, a hot shower or free laundry. Anawim House is a dry house so as to support the residents' commitment to sobriety.
Before the initial beer festival, the organizers approached Anawim House and offered to offset the inconvenience and stress that their event would cause by providing a token financial donation to the house each year.
For the past few festivals - ever more popular, and with ever more festivalgoers relieving themselves in various ways on Anawim's and other neighbours' lawns - that promised support has gone by the wayside.
Perhaps the beer festival organizers could allay some concerns of the liquor branch by donating some of that "money in the bank" to the neighbours it promised to support initially. It won't make up for the stress this event puts on the men and women of Anawim, but at the very least, they'd present the consistency they so bewail in the liquor branch.
Shannon Whissell
Victoria
