At the Karlovac Beer Days, more than 120,000 visitors are expected

The 27th Beer Days in Karlovac will be opened tonight with a ceremonial procession starting from Ban Jelačić Square to the Sports and Recreational Korana. Ivan Arambašić, the assistant director of the Croatian National Tourist Board for product development and destination management, positively assessed their tradition as a significant contribution to the development of continental tourism in Croatia.

According to the official estimate of the Karlovac Police Department, last year’s Beer Days recorded a decline with around 120,000 visitors compared to the previous year. Tihana Bakarić, the director of the Tourist Board of the City of Karlovac, expects an increase in the number of visitors due to greater program diversity and some novelties.

One of the novelties is the introduction of a partner country at the Beer Days, with Macedonia being the first to take on this role this year. Its ambassador to Croatia, Daniela Karagozoska, announced a rich cultural and artistic program featuring folklore performers from the municipality of Rosoman near Kavadarci, along with a rich gastronomic offer enhanced by the presentation of beer from the Prilep Brewery.

The beer offer will feature around 60 taps distributed across 15 hospitality locations and independent venues. In addition to the host Karlovac Brewery, eight more breweries will participate: Zagrebačka, Karlsberg, Ličanka, Buzetska, and the newly established Bujska Brewery from Croatia, as well as Laško from Slovenia, Pivovarna Prilep from Macedonia, and the Montenegrin Trebjesa from Nikšić.

For this occasion, the Karlovac Brewery has prepared a special offer of draft dark beer, said CEO Alexander Gerschbacher. As a special novelty, Gerschbacher emphasized the introduction of special wristbands for visitors, similar to those commonly used at open-air festivals, marked with “18+”. This is an initiative to promote responsible consumption of beer as an alcoholic beverage and to prevent the sale of alcoholic beverages to minors.

As part of the contribution to road safety, free bus transportation to and from the Beer Days has been provided as an additional convenience for beer drinkers from Karlovac and the surrounding area.

Unlike previous years, when the budget for organizing the Beer Days was known at the outset, TZ director Tihana Bakarić stated that this year she cannot disclose those figures to the public at this stage, due to the alleged confidentiality of the data from the contract with the Karlovac Brewery as the general sponsor, as well as the possibility of subsequent income from some of the hospitality providers or participants. Therefore, the final account of income and losses will be presented after the Beer Days conclude.

For comparison, last year’s Beer Days reported a profit of around 9,500 kuna, achieved with a budget of just over 1.5 million kuna.