Junipalooza is returning to Melbourne in a new location, Town Square Pavilion in the Melbourne Showgrounds. The new expansive space allows the festival to present its first Newcomer Zone, featuring six distilleries less than six months old including Mischief Brewing, Burning Berries, Saintlier Distillery, Tan Lines Distillery, Green Street Distillery, and Itinerant Spirits. The Newcomer zone will give Junipalooza attendees the opportunity to unleash their inner gin critic and see them at the very start of their journey, with some distilleries so fresh, they’ve barely bottled their first batch.
Jess Byrne Berry, the co-founder and director of Burning Berries says “As an exhibitor in the Newcomer Zone at Junipalooza, we’re hoping to leverage from the prestigious brand and gain more exposure and increase awareness about us, our brand, and our gin to help grow our business. We’re looking forward to meeting other like-minded brands and distillers to learn more about them, their gins, and the distilling industry as we have a lot of learn! We’re excited to meet gin enthusiasts to share more about us and our gin, and to hear their feedback directly.”
The meet-the-maker style festival will host 50 distilleries from Australia and abroad, welcoming gin enthusiasts to sip and sample the 250 gins on offer. The open layout at the Pavilion will allows the expected thousands of patrons to peruse the producer’s kiosks as they please, with unlimited tastings included in the ticket price.
Joining Australian favourites Four Pillars, Moontide Distillery, and Archie Rose, this year’s festival will see nine distilleries presenting at Junipalooza for the first time, including:
- Parrot Distilling Co
- Midnight Mixers
- Strange Nature Spirits
- Square 1 gin
- Gindu
- Threefold Distilling
- Antipodes Gin
- Island Gin
- Brunswick Aces
Speaking about the 2023 festival, Junipalooza’s co-founder Olivier Ward said “There’s so much to be excited about this year’s Melbourne edition of Junipalooza. Australian craft distilling has evolved, and gin has exploded over the past few years, so better quality, more astute makers and fantastically creative and broad ranges will all be on display. The bar is so high now! To me, it’s the chance to compare each and to hear from the makers themselves that I love the most. Gin is a reflection of people, place and passion – and that’s never more obvious that when you taste it alongside the producers.”
Tasting highlights of this year’s festival will also include a 100% locally made gin from South Australia’s Kangaroo Island Spirits (KIS). To date, gin’s primary ingredient, juniper, has had to be imported into the country to make the beloved spirit. Having grown and nurtured their own juniper for years KIS have managed extract their first harvest from the notoriously slow to mature plants. Using its own crop alongside other local botanicals for a special limited edition, it’s one of few 100% fully Australian Gin to have been made.
Junipalooza has made a name for itself through festivals around London, Hamburg, and Melbourne among gin enthusiasts since its inception nine years ago. With its unique meet-the-maker policy Junipalooza gives fans access to the people behind the brands they know and love. While sipping and browsing, attendees can not only hear their stories but also learn about the unique flavours and tasting notes. Each festivalgoer can taste any of the gins neat or with a touch of tonic to add a twist.
Junipalooza Melbourne, 2023
Friday 20 – Sunday 22 October
Town Square Pavilion, Melbourne Showgrounds
Tickets starting at $50
https://events.humanitix.com/junipalooza-melbourne-2023