The Super Bumper Culinary Weekend

July 15, 2021

Five reasons why you should attend Wellington’s first ever Super Bumper Culinary Weekend

If there was ever a weekend to be into great beer and mind-blowing food, it’s the weekend of 13-15 August, when Beervana returns to Wellington’s Sky Stadium on 13-14 August AND coincides with Visa Wellington On a Plate in a culinary weekend that is sure to draw foodies from all corners of the country. 

Food and bev fans can experience the height of foodie nirvana with Beervana, held, for the first time, in the middle weekend of Visa Wellington On a Plate’s month-long festivities (1-31 Aug). If that's not enough it will also be the first time in Festival history Dine Wellington, Garage Project presents Burger Wellington and Cocktail Wellington presented by Tommy’s will all take place simultaneously over the entire weekend (13-15 Aug), allowing visitors and locals to take a bite - a sip - of each part of the festival.

1/ Beervana 

Some people may be of the mind that Beervana is only for beer nerds, hop heads and the “blokey”. But if this is your perception, you’ve never been! 

New Zealand’s premier festival of Good Beer is back with a plethora of crazy, one-off, Festival beers and theatrical, interactive brewery stands in an immersive fantasy land for beer lovers and the beer curious, alike. 

Beervana is where brewers really pull out all stops with innovative, unique, never-seen-before beers (we’ve had tip-offs about Dr. Pepper stouts, a Jelly-Tip inspired raspberry ice cream porter, a black pudding red double ale, and even a clear beer in IPA form….).

Not only does the festival feature some of the best festival food from Soul Shack, Boulcott Street Bistro, Mahurangi Oysters and more (the food is as big a part of it as the beer!) - there are also stands pouring other drops, such as cider, hard seltzer and sparkling mead.

The entertainment comes in the form of live music and street performance acts, as well as the eye-poppingly visual and interactive stands showcased by all the breweries, who use Beervana as an opportunity to show off their personalities. 

The festival, in its 20th year, will also see a lot of beery birthdays being celebrated with Wellington breweries: Parrotdog and Garage Project, along with Auckland brewery, Deep Creek, and Christchurch brewery, Cassels, all turning 10; Blenheim Brewery, Renaissance Brewing turning 15, and Paraparaumu brewery, Tuatara celebrating an illustrious 21 years. So come join us, and celebrate! 

2/ Festival Events & Pop-ups

This year’s Festival programme is jam-packed with more than 150 ticketed events and free pop-ups taking place over the month. Many of these are ticketed events, and the good news is, there are still many ticketed events available for the weekend of 13-15 August! There are also a lot of pop-ups and free-entry events too, where you can just stride on in, order your kai, and bask in what the Culinary Capital has to offer.

Since it’s Beervana weekend, and assume you’re here for the beer, try LBQ’s The Month After the Night Before, Garage Project’s GP & Friends or join a live session of The Spinoff’s podcast, Dietary Requirements at Parrotdog. If you want a break from beer, check out pop ups from Le Samourai’s cereal bar with Snap, Crackle & Pop-up, go Oh,Canada! with Bambuchisan’s Brisket’s Diner, get your greens with Floriditas plant-based pop-up, Flora No Fauna, or kick back, Jamaican and Caribbean styles with Egmont Street Eatery’s Egmont Island Provisions. 

3/ Dine Wellington 

Hear that? It’s the culinary soundtrack of cutlery clinking, chopsticks clicking and plates being scraped clean. This year sees a shift in culinary story-telling, with restaurants using the Wellington region’s stories as inspiration for Dine festival dishes. Tales of the city’s topography, weather, history, people, homages to hospo and restaurants gone before, and personal Wellington experiences are all told through the medium of food.

This new form of culinary narrative, has seen a wild venison “kina” from Bebemos, inspired by the Nga Kina sculpture on the Wellington Waterfront; and Mockingbird’s Kupe On Mars, a vegan mushroom and microgreens oregano 'mince' and cheese flying saucer pastry, inspired by Wellington’s Red Rocks on the south coast. Which just goes to prove that everything tastes better when you know the story behind the food. Check out the wonderful culinary narrative behind all the Dine dishes. 

4/ Garage Project presents Burger Wellington 

It seems burgers are a uniting food of the people. Who doesn’t love a good burgie? Garage Project presents Burger Wellington is a region-wide phenomenon, with 256 on offer in 2021, from the highbrow to the lowbrow, meaty to plant-based, to the out-of this-world (glow-in-the dark burg, anyone?) to the classics, and everything in between. Whatever your tastes, we promise you - you won’t miss out! 

Last year, 259,000 burgers were consumed in the 20 days of Burger Wellington - one guy even ate more than 90. And whilst no one has managed to eat them all to date, at this stage in the game, we wouldn’t be surprised (N.B. - this is something, we definitely do not endorse or encourage!). Plus, nearly every Burger Wellington burger has the option of being paired with a Garage Project beer! Along with their core range, GP creates three new Festival beers every year, just for the occasion, so keep an eye out for Raspberry Cabaret, Zitrone Weisse and Arvo XPA.  

You can check out the entire burger line up here, and create a wishlist of your favourite, targeted burgs. Prep your spreadsheet, wall planners and Google calendars; reference your Reddit threads and Facebook groups; throw a dart blindly at a wall covered with Burger Wellington options (all legitimate, tried and true methods of planning burger strats, as shared to us by Burger welly fans). 

We can’t choose a fave. That would be like asking us to choose our favourite child. So we’ll leave it in your capable, burger-hungry hands....

5/ Cocktail Wellington Presented by Tommy’s 

And what better way to kick off or finish your Wellington On a Plate outing than a Cocktail Welly? Bars experiment with alcoholic and non-alcoholic concoctions from the fruity, smoky, savoury, sweet, piquant, other worldly, the architectural and more. 

Each is paired with a complementary bite to eat, ranging from the fun to the refined. Think mini donuts and candyfloss to rillettes and oysters. And for those who don’t imbibe alcohol, most cocktails come with a non-alcoholic counterpart, so those who choose not to drink, are in training, driving or are hapū (pregnant) can also enjoy the fun.

Check out Cocktail Wellington’s colourful line-up!

BONUS/ Super Bumper Culinary Weekend massive giveaway

PSA: we've got your August sorted with the most epic culinary adventure the Wellington region has ever seen!  To celebrate the most delicious month of the year, we're giving you and your lucky +1 the chance to experience all the delights of the Visa Welly On a Plate Festival with our SUPER BUMPER CULINARY weekend MEGA prize pack valued at $1,500!! 

This amazing prize includes:

• Return flights for two
• Two nights accommodation with one of our hotel partners in a twin share room
• An excellent festival goodie bag for you and your plus one
• Double passes to Beervana with $30 pre-loaded wristbands to Saturday day session so you're set to roll
• Dining vouchers for use during the Festival, including Dine Wellington, Garage Project presents Burger Wellington and Cocktail Wellington presented by Tommy's vouchers (worth $160 each/up to a total value of $480).

It's easy to enter - simply prove to us you're the biggest foodie in New Zealand by completing the form below and telling us why you deserve to win!

Note: dates are fixed for travel 13-15 August 2021. You may only enter once. The competition closes midnight Wednesday 21 July 2021. The winner will be contacted directly and announced on our social channels on Friday 23 July 2021. No part of this prize is transferable or redeemable for cash. If you are unable to attend, a new winner will be drawn. Standard comp T&C's apply, click here for details.

[COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED]

Visa Wellington On a Plate runs from 1-31 August, and Beervana takes place on 13-14 August at Sky Stadium. Join us for Wellington’s first-ever Super Bumper Culinary Weekend on 13-15 August and get a taste of both! Plan your trip now! We’ll get you started - here’s some deals from our accommodation partners, Sofitel, The InterContinental and QT Wellington.