Downtown Victoria’s Whistle Buoy Brewing is looking to build on the momentum of last year’s incredibly successful ‘Big Patio Days’ celebrations with two back-to-back events in the next two weeks, plus more to follow.
In years past, Whistle Buoy has hosted an event dubbed Whistlemania, where they would take over the entirety of Market Square to celebrate their birthday with wrestling, live music and drag performances, but last year they decided to switch it up.
Though Whistlemania was a fun concept, it required a lot of work and the owners of the brewery wanted to make the event more accessible to their customers and those seeking something to do that didn’t have a high price tag.
Thus, Big Patio Days was born.
Essentially, Big Patio Days allows Whistle Buoy Brewing to triple their patio capacity, which their liquor license permits them to do up to six times a year. They hosted a winter edition back in February which leaves five remaining Big Patio Days for this summer.
“Last year was the first time we held these events and found they were really well received by the community,” said Isaiah Archer, Co-founder of Whistle Buoy.
“This year we plan on creating a similar series of events, but we’ll have more live music than we had in the past and are featuring a lot of artists that haven’t played here before so there will be fresh line-ups as well as some overlap of a few artists that have played here often over the years and are a great fit with the space and the audience.”
Archer noted that accessibility was a big driving factor in creating the Big Patio Days events. Where Whistlemania necessitated a higher priced ticket, the new approach only costs patrons $5 for entry.
Additionally, all Big Patio Days events are family friendly, dog friendly and people are even welcome to bring their own food if they wish.
“Some other accessibility measures include the addition of Market Square’s public washrooms for the duration of the events, water stations, and a full menu of non alcoholic and non beer options,” Archer added.
As for the bands, there are some of Victoria’s favourites playing this year’s Big Patio Days, and even some out of towners.
See the list of Big Patio Days, their themes, the artists that are playing and the food vendors that will be onsite below:
- Birthday Party – Saturday, June 28th
- Juice
- Sofia Leonne
- TK The Artist
- Food from Los Panas
- Victoria Stampede – Saturday, July 5th
- Burks & Gunn
- Jaimeson Rhy
- The Denim Daddies
- Food from Dumpling Drop
- Beach Day – Saturday, July 19th
- Yours Truly
- Alle
- Local Charm
- GETTWETT
- Food from Los Panas and The Wandering Mollusk
- Garden Party – Saturday, August 9th
- Juice
- Jaya Bremer
- Frase
- Food from Los Panas and the Wandering Mollusk
- Oktoberfest – Saturday, September 20th
- OK Charlie
- Food from Los Panas
“We’re excited for all the bands! Some new artists to the space include Sofia Leonne and the Trippycals and TK The Artist for the birthday party,” said Archer.
“We have a country music event on July 5 with a DJ country duo called Burks & Gunn, which is a fun side project for our friend and photographer Taylor Burk and his friend Ronan Gunn. Local country duo Jaimeson Rhy will also be performing with a band and The Denim Daddies will be flying in from Edmonton to close out the night.”
“There’s so much talent and we can’t wait to see all the artists perform,” he added.
Things kick off this weekend with the celebration of Whistle Buoy’s sixth birthday bash and the brewery says they are ready to play host for a fun full day of music, beer and food.
