Bad news, beer drinkers! It looks like we can’t get to taste our craft beers this year at Publika for the Better Beer Festival.
Yes, it’s true. According to Malaysiakini, Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) has confirmed that they have received an application to hold the Better Beer Festival in the Publika mall in Solaris Dutamas. However, they have decided to reject the application but did not state the reason for doing so. But why lah?
Source: Facebook
DBKL’s corporate planning department director Khalid Zakaria said that they have received the necessary application on August 28 for the Better Beer Festival to take place from 6 – 7 October from 2.00pm to 11.00pm.
They warned the organisers that if they continued to hold the event without approval, necessary action would be taken.
Source: Facebook
The festival, which was started in 2012 is held in conjunction with Oktoberfest and was supposed to showcase 250 different craft beers from all over the world. In fact, there would be representatives coming from around the globe to showcase their countries’ beers with food, live performances and of course, beer drinking.
The event also does not condone drinking and driving so they have partnered with Uber as well to provide promo codes to ride to and from the festival easily. Remember, always drink responsibly! However, it looks like all of these isn’t going to take place. 
Source: Time Out Kuala Lumpur
Source: Time Out Kuala Lumpur
Chinapress reports that the Selangor government had said that they have no objections against this event after PAS condemned the event and labelled it as “shameful.”
When we reached out to the organisers of Better Beer Festival, they clarified with their press statement as below;
“It is with disappointment that we, the organisers of The Better Beer Festival 2017, would like to announce that the festival, slated to be held on 6 and 7 October 2017, will not be proceeding as scheduled.”
“At our meeting with the officials at the Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur, we were instructed to cancel our event as there are issues with the licensing. We were further informed that the decision was made due to the political sensitivity surrounding the event.”
“We regret any inconvenience caused to our patrons, partners and sponsors, and thank you for your unwavering support over the last week.”
Malaysians who read about the news expressed their outrage and disappointment over DBKL’s decision.
Oh well, we can hear beer lovers’ hearts breaking already.
Also read: PAS Condemns Upcoming Beer Festival in KL, Calls it “Shameful”
