One of Calgary's most popular outdoor food festivals is back. Brewery & the Beast returns to The Confluence on Sunday, August 23, bringing together more than 60 chefs and restaurants from Calgary and Banff for an afternoon of live-fire cooking, craft drinks, and live music along the riverfront.

The all-you-can-enjoy format means guests can work their way through dishes from a roster that includes River Café, Major Tom, Shokunin, Posto Pizzeria, Rodney's Oyster House, and dozens more — all cooked over open fire and made with proteins sourced from farms and ranches across B.C., Alberta, and Saskatchewan. General admission tickets include food, non-alcoholic drinks, and eight alcoholic beverage tickets; VIP tickets bump that to ten and get you in an hour early at 1:00 p.m.

The festival has quietly built a community component into its DNA since launching in 2012, raising over $185,000 for culinary scholarships, mental health initiatives, and food security programs — making it one of those rare events where the cause is as much a draw as the food.