Piątkowe Picie: Attending the 5th Festival Piwa at Browar Kociewski, Starogard Gdański

My Piątkowe Picie series and my Smaczne Środy series have suffered a lot on m y blog, I know. I have only a handful of these posts finished even though they are my favourite ones to write. As a veteran travel writer of over 10 years now, other projects took over and I got busy in the wake of self depression. However, I have a short one today, so good to be back!

In September 2017, I attended my first beer festival in Poland, a fact I had to check myself. It was on Saturday 9th September 2017 at Browar Kociewski in Starogard Gdański, perfect for my Piątkowe Picie series and also the fifth time this brewery had held such a festival.

It is actually a venue I am familiar with having reviewed the beers at Browar Kociewski before, staying in the swanky Hotel Ren and writing about the best bars in this less ventured Polish town.

Entrance Fee for the 5 Festival Piwa at Browar Kociewski, Starogard Gdański
Some people may get in free and there are various options. We decided to go in at the gate and pay the 25zlotych entrance fee (which includes one beer and one sausage). That’s about £5, not too bad considering there is live music and lots happening. You get a ticket with two coupons on it. Another bonus of paying entry is you get a ticket and get to keep it. I collect physical memories too – I love them.

 

Beers and Sausages
The entrance fee includes one beer and a sausage (with bread and a gherkin). The beer is either the Browar Kociewski Lager or Pils. Although Browar Kociewski has 4 (and sometimes 5 or 6) varieties, I understand they do this for speed.

Below I have included some photos of the brewery and beer choices from the normal day trading at Browar Kociewski. It’s a great bar, which I previously reviewed and sampled all four types of beer they had at the time.

Live Music
The festival kicked off at 17.00 and we missed the start, as we were downtown at the Deyna Arena watching the big match – Klub Pilkarski Starogard v. Unia Solec Kujawski at the Deyna Stadium.

But once we got into the festival, the music was well underway and here was the running order for the gig.

17.00 Pstrong Orkiestra
19.00 Paweł BIBA Binkiewicxz
21.00 Poparzeni Kawą
22.30 DJ Pezet i Paulina Czalpa

We missed the first act but got stuck into the beers when Paweł was onstage, then took a rest having seats towards the back. It was a lot busier and hectic than expected. As the local news stated “this is Starogard’s Oktoberfest!” and it really was. We mingled with the crowd, spoke to a few locals and listened to the music before heading back to Tczew later on. A few photos, sorry for the quality – it had been a long day and another crazy night!

Photos from Starogard’s Facebook Page
I have taken these photos from the Starogard Gdanski Facebook Page, all copyright. The festival also appeared in local news.

Thanks again to everyone in the town for a great day and superb event. This may have been my first beer festival since moving to Poland but Rafal and I said we might be back next year for the same festival. In the meantime though, I have lined up another beer festival to go to!

Here are my videos from the Beer Festival:

Here are some other videos from the Beer Festival: