Local micro brewery Ballykilcavan Breweries will be unable to sell their products at Electric Picnic once again this year.
This is because multinational company Heineken N.V, the brewers of Heineken, Coors Light, Birra Moretti and Orchard Thieves have purchased exclusivity rights for the festival.
Although these exclusivity rights had been in place for a number of years, it was hoped that Ballykilcavan would be able to strike a deal with Electric Picnic that would allow them to sell their beer too.
Submissions had been made to Laois County Council as part of the licensing arrangement but, taking to social media this morning, owner David Walsh-Kemis says that there has been no change.
The owener of Ballykilcavan says he tried numerous times to contact the festival owners but to no avail.
He said: “Nothing has changed since last year. I’ve tried contacting the festival owners but I’ve received absolutely no response from them.”
Locals and fans of the beer put in requests into Laois County Council that a requirement would be put in place to allow ‘Irish owned Micro Breweries’ into the festival alongside Heineken but the council didn’t take further action with the proposal.
David said: “The world’s second largest brewing company with a turnover of 34 billion euro is allowed to buy exclusive rights to sell beer at the festival and everyone else including us is shut out.”
Despite this, David is going to capitalise on the festival buzz in the area with a glamping site on the farm.
The camp site described as ‘a bit more luxurious’ will have a shuttle bus heading to and from the campsite and you will be able to purchase Ballykilcavan beer there too.
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